This big, green hornworm is nothing to mess with.  When threatened, he hisses and lunges.  If that doesn’t work, watch out!

See him grab attacking beetles and throw them across the room.  In every contest, the caterpillar wins.  Read more here in Science Magazine.

The Langia zenzeroides hornworm is from Asia but I wonder if our North American hornworms fling their beetle enemies.  Imagine the match-up between a tobacco hornworm and a blister beetle, both pictured below.

I wonder if they ever meet.

(video from Science Magazine on YouTube; caterpillar photo from Wikimedia Commons, click on the image to see the original; blister beetle photo by Kate St. John)