The garden is under attack: Nature on the defense.

While meandering through the garden yesterday, I came across this interesting sight.  I'd never seen this before.

After doing some research, I've discovered that this is a Tomato Hornworm that had (has?) been victimized by a Braconid Wasp. The wasp is a predatory insect.  To quote from the Master Gardener site linked to before,

They like to feed on things we don't like in our gardens: hornworms, caterpillars, beetles, aphids, squash bugs and stink bugs are among the many pests that members of the Braconidae family consider gourmet delicacies.

These Braconid wasps lay their eggs on the host, the larvae eat their way to the surface of the worm and make their cocoons as seen in my picture above.  Once the adult wasps come from the cocoons -- and you can see that a few of the tops have been popped off -- the Hornworm dies.

So, apparently, we have Braconid Wasps at work in the garden to help protect our plants from predators.