Extremely Metal "Bone Collector" Caterpillar Cloaks Itself in the Shattered Exoskeletons of Its Vanquished Foes

A newly discovered species of caterpillar in Hawaii is unlike any other. It's carnivorous — already an extreme rarity for these generally benign creatures — and when it's not devouring its helpless foes, it's cloaking itself in a gruesome canvas of their body parts. Oh, did we also mention it's occasionally a cannibal? Taking trophies ranging from entire heads to molted exoskeletons, there's a reason why scientists have nicknamed it the "bone collector." As detailed in a study published in the journal Science, the caterpillars favor lurking in spider webs hidden from view, like in a tree hollow or rock cavity, where they strip the corpses of insects ensnared in the silk traps, and daringly avoid the detection of the arachnids that interred them there. And the caterpillars get away with it thanks to their macabre costumes, disguising them as the dead insects while also making them appear unappetizing to predators. "We started realizing these things are only hanging out where there are ... Read full article.