It sounds like a setup for a horror movie: a meat-eating, cannibalistic caterpillar hiding in the shadows of a spiderweb and dressed in the remains of its former prey. But this incredible species, dubbed the “bone collector” and previously unknown to biologists, is real and living in a small section of forest on the Hawai'ian island of O’ahu.
For the research team from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, this extremely rare discovery was 20 years in the making and shocked everyone involved.
“It’s not just unexpected, it’s unimaginable,” says Dan Rubinoff. “This caterpillar was not on anybody’s radar. We came up with so many alternative explanations for what was happening.”
