Although herbivory in ground-rooted flora is well documented, currentknowledge of the herbivore pressure on vascular epiphytes remains mostlyanecdotal. Here, we present the results of a 3-year study on the herbivoryin a population of the epiphytic bromeliad Vriesea sanguinolenta. Indifferent years, 26–61% of all epiphytes showed traces of herbivoreattack, while up to 4.4% of the entire leaf area of the epiphyte populationwas consumed annually. The recorded levels of damage to photosynthetictissue, mostly caused by the larvae of Napaea eucharilla (Riodinidae,Lepidoptera), indicate that vascular epiphytes may be regularly andsometimes even lethally attacked by insect herbivores. The level of damageis comparable to ground-rooted tropical flora, which certainly does notsupport the prevalent notion of low and negligible levels of herbivory invascular epiphytes.