This is the really big caterpillar we saw today. We were at St.Mary's City for the second day of Archaeology Weekend (see separate postings), when one of the reenactor/living history people called out to Sarah, "You want to see something really weird?" This huge, maybe five or more inches long, caterpillar was crossing the path. We think it's a tobacco hornworm, but it's bigger than any anybody had seen. The living history people (that's why the guy holding it is in colonial outfit) didn't know what it was. Sarah has a stuffed tobacco hornworm (she has every stuffed animal imaginable, even caterpillars) so we were fairly confident' we'd seen smaller ones at the colonial farm in Accokeek, Maryland, which recreates a colonial tobacco plantation. This is a gigantic one if that's what it is though. Most of the Internet postings I've found say they get up to 75-85mm (maybe 2.5-3.5 inches) and the largest estimate I found was four inches; this one is at least five I think: look at the man's hands in the picture; he was a big guy. The Internet did say they drop to the ground and burrow when they are ready to go from larve to pupa; maybe that's what this guy was planning before we all started gawking. Now the video:
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