Bone collectors feast on dead and dying critters caught in a spider's web and then decorate themselves with the legs, wings and heads of their victims to avoid detection by their spider hosts.

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.

Yes, this thing is for real. Aptly nicknamed the “bone collector,” the larva haunts a six-square-mile patch of Oahu’s Wai‘anae Mountains, lurking exclusively in spider webs and disguising ...

Bone collector cases are carefully constructed from silk and exoskeleton parts. Image: Rubinoff lab, Entomology Section, University of Hawaii, Manoa.

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

HONOLULU (KHON2) — University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists have discovered a new caterpillar species they dub the “bone collector.” The bone collector lives in spiderwebs and decorates ...

The bone collector’s habitat is increasingly under threat from invasive ants, parasitic wasps, and the ever-present pressure of environmental change due to climate change and human disturbances ...

Reuters. 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 range ...

Why it's awesome: The bone collector is not just a very hungry caterpillar — it has an appetite for flesh.And once it finishes scavenging on dead or dying insects trapped in a spider's web, the ...