The Frangipani Hawkmoth Caterpillar (Pseudosphinx tetrio) is a very colourful and substantially sized caterpillar that is pretty difficult to miss with their vibrant orange stripes. They will easily grow to 3 or more inches in length before entering the pupal stage.
As the name suggests, these caterpillars feed on the milk of the Frangipani tree and its relatives. The milk of these trees is poisonous to humans and will actually blister one’s skin if not washed off properly, but it seems to provide these caterpillars with the nutrition they need, and protection from predators, as birds do not find them remotely interesting.
The Frangipani Hawkmoth Caterpillar has a voracious appetite, and a colony of them can clean a tree in 48 hours. They don’t seem to harm the tree, as the leaves all grow back and life continues, but the tree becomes quite unsightly with it’s ragged nakedness, a quite different nakedness from when the tree loses it’s leaves naturally prior to flowering.
The photographs give an indication of the number of caterpillars that may infest a tree all at the same time, and the level of damage done to each leaf, though the caterpillars in the photos are not full grown. The actual moth that later emerges is quite nondescript in appearance and blends beautifully with vegetation and tree bark. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of said moths.
The influx of the Frangipani Hawkmoth Caterpillar seems to be a more recent thing in Barbados. I do not remember seeing them as a child, and I would have said that they have made their appearance in a big way over the past 10 years or so, but then again, with so many varieties of the frangipani family of tree now in gardens around the island, there is a lot more for the caterpillars to eat.
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