Caterpillars of bone collection of the Waianae mountain range in Oahu, Hawaii
Daniel Rubinoff et al. 2025
The recently described Orouga species “Bone collector” disguises himself from the body parts of the dead insects so that he can live between spiders and hunt their prey. This is the only Caterpillar who knows that he uses such a spooky camouflage or has spiders as roommates, and is a carnivore and a cannibal to the ship.
Daniel Rubinoff at Hawaii University in Mānoa and his colleagues discovered the caterpillar while walking through the Waianae mountains in Oahu more than two decades ago. They were looking for other species in the same genus, Hiposmocomaalso known as hawaian elegant caterpillars. “We see this small and small bag covered with pieces of insects, and honestly, we hurried to what it was,” says Rubinoff. “And then we recover it [to the lab]And we realize that there is a small caterpillar there. “
The newly described species of Hiposmocoma – That has not yet resorted to a scientific name – lives in cobwebs inside the trunks of the trees, between rocks and other closed spaces. It is the length of a nail and feeds on insects trapped in spider networks. “Only 0.13 percent of all caterpillars on the planet are carnivorous,” says Rubinoff. “So it’s amazing for an evolving caterpillar to eat meat.”
The bone collector avoids becoming a prey with a macabre method: adorns his silk case with dead insect fragments and the spider -mute exoskeleton. The creature carefully calculates each part of the body, which may include ants, beetle abdomen or flies wings, before having it in its disguise.
The Caterpillar (left) of the bone collector uses its spooky costume to live with a spider (right)
Daniel Rubinoff et al. 2025
“That is the only way to survive, probably, living with a spider, covering you in pieces of the spider’s shed and their meals fit,” says Rubinoff. This leaves the caterpillar to smell and try more as a garbage bag than like a juicy snack to his arachnid house partner. After approximately two or three months, it metamorphosis in a cloth narrower than a grain of rice.
If the accessories of the bone collector is quick enough, this caterpillar is also a cannibal. The researchers learned this after placing two of the larvae in the same cage, which led the older faith in their smallest brothers and Waker. That is why you only see a bone collector by spider network, says Rubinoff.
Researchers have found that only 62 of these creatures in more than 150 field surveys conducted for approximately 22 years, all within the same 15 square kilometers of the Waianae mountain range.
The genetic analysis indicates that its line is approximately 3 million years older than the island of Oahu, which means that it was once again extended. “From the arrivals of humans in a place like this, we have lost many native species,” says Rubinoff. “It is a miracle that we could find [the bone collector]And really sad that they are so restricted to this place. “
Topics:
]