Animal Bone-collecting caterpillar wears remains of its prey as camouflage
The newly discovered bone collector caterpillar wears a camouflage garment made from body parts of its prey. The caterpillar is only found on a single mountainside on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu.
26.04.2025, 06:43
SDA
In a horror movie, the carnivorous bone-collecting caterpillar would be a gruesome character with no scruples: the newly discovered species creates a carefully designed camouflage garment from the inedible body parts of its insect prey. Researchers report on this equally creepy and fascinating observation in the journal "Science".
The research team discovered the bizarre insect larvae in a small, 15-square-kilometer patch of mountain forest on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. The caterpillars not only inhabit a small area, they are also very rare: After years of searching, just 62 specimens have been observed.
According to the researchers, it is no coincidence that the unusual new species was discovered on Hawaii of all places: the geographical isolation of the archipelago has given rise to a whole range of bizarre species, including dragonfly larvae that live on land and not in water, spiders that impale their prey from the air and a whole range of carnivorous caterpillars. Such carnivorous caterpillars are a rarity in themselves: of the almost 200,000 species of moths and butterflies currently known, just 0.1 percent of larvae exhibit such predatory behavior.
Morbid camouflage
Even more unusual is the hunting behavior of the bone collector caterpillar: The insect from the moth genus Hyposmocoma, which only occurs in Hawaii, lives exclusively in spider webs woven in tree hollows or rock crevices. The caterpillars crawl through these webs in search of weakened or recently dead other insects that have become entangled in the web. They do not even stop at conspecifics and cannibalize them if they come across a smaller specimen.
What is remarkable, however, is what the caterpillars adorn themselves with in order to avoid being discovered by their spider host: For example, they carry inedible body parts of their prey as camouflage, the three researchers write: "The body parts are carefully measured for size before the caterpillar weaves them into its collection." Each potential new arrival is turned several times, felt with the mouthparts and chewed down to a size that fits into the shell.
The strategy seems to be working: So far, they have not observed any bone collector caterpillars killed or captured by spiders, the study says.
