The bone collector caterpillar puts a macabre spin on the practice. Using silk, the caterpillar weaves bits of the dead insects it encounters on the spider’s web.

A bone collector caterpillar resting on a clump of webbing next to a non-native spitting spider with its egg sac. Image: Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa ...

A bone collector can be quite selective, picking up potential body parts among the web detritus and probing them with its mandibles, chewing larger pieces down to the desired size.

A new carnivorous caterpillar that wears the remains of its prey has been dubbed the "bone collector." The insect is only found on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It creeps along spiderwebs, feeding ...

For now, its common name, “bone collector,” will do. The unique epithet befits a unique animal, Rubinoff said. “No other caterpillar is stupid enough to live in a spider’s web,” he said.

But bone collector caterpillars slink through cobwebs in rotted logs, tree hollows, or crevices in rock and dine on newly dead or weakened insects they find, even gnawing through silk for a meal.

A “bone collector” attacks another native moth caterpillar. | Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa. The “bone collectors” co-habit in cobwebs with the resident ...

Item 1 of 2 The habitat of a newly identified carnivorous caterpillar species nicknamed the “bone collector”, which camouflages itself by wearing body parts of its prey, in Waianae mountain ...

Bone collector caterpillars grow up to be moths, like most caterpillars do, but these moths tend to lay their eggs in a spiderweb’s nooks and crannies.

Scientists in Hawaii have discovered a new, extremely rare species: carnivorous, bone-collecting caterpillars, that live in one 5-mile area on Oahu.

NEW YORK (AP) — A new carnivorous caterpillar that wears the remains of its prey has been dubbed the “bone collector.” The odd insect is only found on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It creeps ...

The newly described “bone collector” caterpillar species disguises itself with the body parts of dead insects so that it can live among spiders and poach their prey.