The species has been known to damage and defoliate Plumeria. The caterpillar is also coated in barbed urticating hairs, which stick deeply in skin and cause irritation. An exception is the smooth-billed ani ( Crotophaga ani), which tears the caterpillar apart to eat it, avoiding the gut containing the plant material. Its consumption of toxic plants makes it distasteful to most predators. The caterpillar has several antipredator adaptations. It has been observed as a pollinator of the fringed star orchid ( Epidendrum ciliare) in Puerto Rico. It has been recorded on Madagascar periwinkle ( Catharanthus roseus) and pequi ( Caryocar brasiliense). It pupates in the leaf litter or under the soil. The caterpillars feed on the plant, detoxifying the poisonous latex present in most Apocynaceae. The female lays eggs in clusters of about 50 to 100. alba in particular is so often infested with this caterpillar that it has been nicknamed "the wormy tree". alba), and golden trumpet ( Allamanda cathartica). Host taxa include Plumeria species such as red frangipani ( P. The moth specializes on plants of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It is yellow when new, turning brown and darkening to a reddish brown as it hardens. Toward the posterior end is an orange bump with a black horn roughly 2 centimeters long. It is black with aposematic yellow bands and a red-orange head. The larva is a caterpillar which may exceed 15 centimeters in length. The wingspan is 12.7 to 14 centimeters, and the female is generally slightly larger than the male. The body has gray, white, and black bands. The adult moth is brown with gray and white markings, and the hindwing is a darker brown.
The occasional individual has been recorded as far north as the northeastern United States. It is native to the tropical and subtropical Americas from the southern and southwestern United States to Brazil. In the island of Martinique it is best known as Rasta caterpillar ( chenille rasta, in French) because of its colors which are reminiscent of the ones found in Rastafarian clothing and accessories. Its common names include tetrio sphinx, giant gray sphinx, frangipani hornworm, and plumeria caterpillar.
Its only species, Pseudosphinx tetrio, was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771. Pseudosphinx is a monotypic moth genus in the family Sphingidae first described by Hermann Burmeister in 1856.
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