Gynanisa maja is the wild edible caterpillar of a speckled emperor moth belonging to the order Lepidoptera and the family Saturniidae. It has nutritional and economic value hence, provide food security at household level during its harvesting season. Despite the significant value of this caterpillar, it is harvested seasonally and unsustainably, and plant chemicals that influences its feeding are not known. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying the preferred forages as a benchmark for farming this caterpillar and to determine plant chemicals that influence its foraging preference. The household survey on people’s indigenous knowledge was carried out in 61 villages to determine the information people have on the host plants of G. maja, the structured questionnaire was used, and 400 respondents participated. Julbernardia paniculata, Erythrophleum africanum, Brachystegia longifolia, B. spiciformis and Albizia antunesiana were mentioned as host plants. Local people (100 % of the respondents) mentioned that the caterpillar frequently feed most on J. paniculata and respondents consistently revealed E.africanum and B. longifolia as the 2 preferred choice for the caterpillar respectively and these are the only host plants that were mentioned in all the five clusters. Proximate and phytochemical analyses were conducted and findings revealed that J. paniculata had significantly high amount of total ash (F2,15 = 557.0, p < 0.001) and crude protein (F2,15 = 77.6, p < 0.001) and low content of total fat. The presence of desirable terpenoids and lack of undesirable saponins and phenols as only associated with J. paniculata provided further support for the peoples’ indigenous knowledge that this species is the most preferred host for the caterpillar. The findings of this study provide an opportunity to preserve this tree species so as to avoid sending G. maja into extinct which may have serious consequences on household food security particularly for the local people.