Flesh-eating caterpillar dresses in bones to steal prey
Credit: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
A flesh-eating caterpillar dresses up in bones to sneak onto spider webs and steal prey, scientists have discovered.
The tiny scavenger has been dubbed the 'bone collector' because it disguises itself with the leftover body parts of insects so it can move stealthily among the silk strands, picking off trapped bugs.
One creature was found to have decorated itself with an ant head, the wing of a fly, a weevil head, a fly leg and the abdomen of a bark beetle.
The habitat of the little creature is tiny, limited to a patch of volcanic slope just six square miles on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, home to the state capital of Honolulu.
Hawaii's isolated location has allowed the evolution of several unusual invertebrates, including spiders that spear prey from the air and caterpillars that hunt snails and live partly in water.
But the 'macabre' practice of a caterpillar covering itself in body parts is entirely unprecedented, scientists said.
Writing in the journal Science, Dr Daniel Rubinoff, of the University of Hawaii, said: 'The 'bone collector' caterpillar adds an additional dimension with a bizarre housekeeping regimen not reported for any other insect.
'We have identified body parts belonging to more than six different families of insect attached to the silk caterpillar cases, suggesting that they are adaptable scavengers and predators.
'Carnivorous caterpillars are an extremely rare evolutionary phenomenon, and although caterpillars and spiders are common in the same environments all over the world, only this single caterpillar lineage in Hawaii is known to have made the leap to spider cohabitation.'
The caterpillar belongs to the genus Hyposmocoma, an ancient and diverse group of scavenging moths found only in Hawaii.
The researchers discovered that the camouflaged species will 'crawl through the jumble of web and detritus and opportunistically eat any weakened or recently deceased insects they come across' and even chew through silk to reach its meal.
Experts found they are particular about decorating themselves, carefully measuring collected body parts for size before weaving them into their collection.
When researchers tried to offer them other bits of detritus to use as disguise, the caterpillars refused, suggesting they recognise and exclusively use corpses and consider the grisly decoration important to survival.
'Each prospective new addition is rotated and probed with its mandibles several times, and parts that are too large are chewed down to a size that will fit its case,' added Dr Rubinoff.
'It is possible that the array of partially consumed body parts and shed spider skins covering the case forms effective camouflage from a spider landlord; the caterpillars have never been found predated by spiders or wrapped in spider silk.'
In captivity, researchers found the caterpillars will also attack and eat any live, slow-moving, or immobilised insect prey, and they will even cannibalise each other, researchers found.
The practice of animals clothing themselves in objects as protection or camouflage is seen occasionally throughout the animal kingdom.
Caddisfly larvae build themselves protective armour by spinning together stones, sand, leaves and twigs with a silk they secrete from glands around the mouth.
Hermit crabs also wear shells for protection, and will swap them throughout their lives as they grow, while decorator crabs use their Velcro-like hairs to attach seaweed, sponges, and corals to their shells, to help blend in with their surroundings.
The Uraba lugens caterpillar makes itself a hat from its discarded moulted heads.
Some assassin bugs carry around the dead carcasses of ants as a 'backpack' to protect them from predators, while the larvae of lacewing insects often cover themselves with shields of dead skin and their own droppings to deter predators.
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