Here is a weird moth larva

[BillTre]

This is in Science:

Abstract​

Lepidoptera is the most herbivorous of all the insect orders, with predatory caterpillars globally comprising less than 0.13% of the nearly 200,000 moth and butterfly species. Here, we report a species in which caterpillars are carnivorous inhabitants of spider’s webs, feeding on the arthropods that they find there. This Hawaiian lineage also boasts an unprecedented and macabre practice of decorating its portable larval home with the body parts of the spider prey it harvests from the web where it resides. Phylogenomic data suggest that the origin of this unique spider cohabitant is at least six million years old, more than one million years older than Hawaii’s current high islands. After decades of searching, only one species has been discovered, and it is restricted to 15 square kilometers of a single mountain range on the island of Oʻahu, meaning that other members of the lineage have disappeared from older islands. Conservation action to save this globally unique lineage is imperative and overdue.

 

[Drakkith]

All I have to say is... yuck.

 

[JT Smith]

I was telling a friend about that yesterday after having read a blurb in an issue of Science. The abstract says that the species is "more than one million years older than Hawaii’s current high islands" and I was wondering where it had originally blown or floated in from.

The "bone" camouflage didn't disgust me but I was oddly disappointed to learn that there are carnivorous caterpillars. I don't why that bugged me (haha). I have a carnivorous plant and think it's cool.

Short video: https://www.science.org/doi/suppl/10.1126/science.ads4243/suppl_file/science.ads4243_movie_s1.zip

 

[SleipnirTheHorse]

I thought I heard of a predatory inchworm also in Hawaii?