This moth spells trouble for your tomato patch because it's actually the mature version of the tomato hornworm, and it's responsible for laying the eggs from which baby tomato hornworms hatch.

Eggs hatch to give rise to a worm-like larva ... Have you ever seen a big green hornworm chewing on tomato plants with white cocoons on its back? That hornworm has been attacked by a parasitic wasp – ...

egg, larval, and pupal predators, fungi, bacteria and a virus. Because of the migratory behavior of hornworm adults, this abundance of natural enemies does not prevent periodic hornworm outbreaks. A ...