Horn worms questions.

1) are they tomato hawkmoth lavae ?

2) can you take wild caught horn worms as baby worms and the feed them the commercial horn worm food and then use these worms as feeders for lizards after they've been feed commercial horn worm for a few weeks ?

3) with the toxins in them from tomato leafs be excreted over time making safe to use ?

The ones most available here are Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm/Carolina Sphinx moth)

Most of the information I've found pertaining to reptiles is on forums and care sheets and doesn't have any citations or evidence and is just "never do it". It may be a better safe than sorry sort of thing.

I have read a study on Manduca sexta that suggests they metabolize the nicotine but nothing about tomatoe hornworms or what toxins are of concern (solanine or other alkaloids?) it depends on where and how they deal with the toxins, if it's in the tissue or in the digestive track. Here is an interesting article about the use of nicotine for defense http://m.phys.org/news/2013-12-tobacco-hornworm-nicotine-defensive-halitosis.html

There are a few threads about feeding them to chickens without problems, as well as for human consumption. http://www.eattheweeds.com/manduca-cuisine-eating-green-gluttons-2/ that's not to say it's a good idea to experiment on our pets, but does make me wonder....

Interesting ... http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/field/hornworm.htm

tomato horn worms are also called Goliath worms (Manduca quinquemaculata) and are listed here http://www.lllreptile.com/info/library/care-and-husbandry-articles/-/feeding-insectivorous-reptiles/ .

Old post, but here's my uneducated guess about toxicity:

From my knowledge wild hornworms are GREEN (because of what they feed on), whereas captive bred hornworms are blue-ish.
If you feed a hornworm long enough to turn from green to blue it may be fine, though you still can't be 100% sure they're not dangerous for your animal (especially consider parasites! I think there is a wasp that lays eggs in/on hornworms which hatch and feed on the insides of hornworms. Eek!).

The thing that is borderline okay in my opinion is if you'd take and feed some wild hornworms (I've successfully fed banana and carrot but they prefer carrots), let them pupate and then breed with the moths to get fresh, 'uncontaminated' eggs.
Just make sure the eggs won't hatch and feed on the tomato plant you will place in the enclosure to make the moths breed!