''Cautethia noctuiformis'' is a species of

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

in the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species ar ...

, which is known from the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. It was described by Francis Walker in 1856. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 28–40 mm. Adults nectar at flowers. The larvae feed on ''

Chiococca alba ''Chiococca alba'' is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Florida and the extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical Sou ...

'' in Puerto Rico and ''

Exostema ''Exostema'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It consists of trees and shrubs, endemic to the neotropics, with most of the species occurring in the West Indies. Description ''Exostema'' is a genus of neotropical trees and ...

'' species in Cuba.

Subspecies

*''Cautethia noctuiformis noctuiformis'' (Barbuda, Antigua, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto-Rico, St. Thomas, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew and the Lesser Antilles) *''Cautethia noctuiformis bredini'' Cary, 1970 (Antigua, Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands) *''Cautethia noctuiformis choveti'' Haxaire, 2002 (Guadeloupe)

References

Cautethia Moths described in 1856 Taxa named by Francis Walker (entomologist) Moths of North America {{Dilophonotini-stub