The Old World species Phricanthes flexilinena (Walker) is reported from Costa Rica and Panama for the first time, confirming a nearly century-old report that the species occurs in the New World (i.e., Guyana). Paired trapping efforts at Estación Biologica La Selva, Costa Rica, suggest that the species is more common in the canopy (20 m high) than at ground level. Two new larval host plants are reported for the species in Costa Rica: Tetracera volubilis L. and Davilla nitia (Valh) Kubitzki (both Dilleniaceae). Circumstantial evidence suggests that the species arrived via plant material for propagation as ornamentals, and that upon arrival in the Neotropics, potential hosts of the same family were available for colonization. A similar phenomenon may be occurring in continental Africa.