Eli5: how are there caterpillars that specifically feed on crops that we have domesticated?

Question

Example: we have selectively bred and grown tomato for hundreds of years to where it is unrecognizable from its wild ancestor, yet the tomato hornworm can only eat tomato leaves and nothing else???

In: 2

Answer 1

The crops are hardly unrecognizable. The DNA of the tomato is still almost the exact same as it was thousands of years ago.

Cross breeding crops doesn’t make it that different and the creatures that eat it can adapt as well.

Your question is based upon a false starting premise.