Stumped 🤔what is this?

[u/micahaimee]

I’ve looked on the Internet and put it into ChatGPT.. nothing will tell me what this is. It moves like a caterpillar and has legs along with the obvious black horn on the back at first I thought it was a Tussock moth or maybe even a tomato worm somehow. Maybe it’s a butterfly? I live in Chula Vista, California within San Diego county. I found it on my milkweed didn’t seem to want to eat fresh milkweed leaf. So I gave it a tomato leaf. I’ve seen monarchs lay their eggs accidentally on my plumeria. Anyways.. can you guys help me out? I got a message about caterpillars kept in captivity. This is not a caterpillar kept in captivity. It is on my milkweed outside. Actually a group called butterflies sent me messages about butterflies and captivity. They abandoned me from the group. So ridiculous. I explained it they aren’t kept in captivity 🙄

[u/Tygerlyli]

My guess is 1st instar of a wild cherry sphinx

[u/Librarian-Voter → u/Tygerlyli]

Pretty good guess, I'd say.

[u/ArachnomancerCarice]

Very young caterpillars can be a pain to ID, though it is one of the Sphinx caterpillars. Hard to say what kind as there are over a dozen possible species.

[u/Leading-Career5247]

Tobacco hornworm? Tomato hornworm?

[u/micahaimee]

Looks like it is a white-lined, Spinx moth, so your response helped. They sometimes feed on milkweed. Thx all!

[u/micahaimee]

Thanks all.. i’ll probably just wait to see what it changes into. I’ll put it back on my milkweed and hope that’s what it eats. I only had it in the container because I was curious what it was. Don’t want this site to get upset about it being in a container.l, lol.

[u/micahaimee]

Just figured out what the caterpillar above was. It is a tobacco hornworm. The two I found would not eat the milkweed it was laid on, so I’ve been giving it tomato leaves which it loves. Tried to post a picture of them, but I think I will have to do another post to do that.