The bone collector caterpillar is found only within a six-square-mile swath of a single mountain range on the island of Oahu. There it resides exclusively on cobwebs spun by spiders in logs and ...

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" was the name of Jeffery Deaver's 1997 crime novel and subsequent 1999 movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. "I think the term is out there in the ether, ...

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

Scientists in Hawaii have discovered a new, extremely rare species: carnivorous, bone-collecting caterpillars, that live in one 5-mile area on Oahu.

Since Dr. Rubinoff first encountered the species in 2008 inside a tree hollow, his team has conducted more than 150 field surveys and found only 62 bone collector specimens.

But bone collector caterpillars slink through cobwebs in rotted logs, tree hollows, or crevices in rock and dine on newly dead or weakened insects they find, even gnawing through silk for a meal.

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.

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.

Dubbed the “bone collector,” this caterpillar species sports remains of prey as camouflage while it stalks spider webs for trapped bugs, researchers report in the April 25 Science.

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 ...

The newly described “bone collector” caterpillar species disguises itself with the body parts of dead insects so that it can live among spiders and poach their prey.