Using their silk, bone collector caterpillars weave together a grotesque suit of armor. They snip, chew, and shape the remnants of beetles, weevils, flies, even spider molts — always scavenged ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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.

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.

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.