Hyposmocoma molluscivora
| Hyposmocoma molluscivora | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hyposmocoma molluscivora | ||||||||||||
| Rubinoff , 2005 |
Hyposmocoma molluscivora sometimes, mollusc-eaters or shellfish eaters called, is one on the island of Maui ( Hawaii discovered), in 2005 butterfly species belonging to the family of cosmopterigidae belongs (Cosmopterigidae). The caterpillars stand out for their particular hunting behavior.
Occurrence
The animals are only found in the tropical rainforest of four of the five islands in Hawaii.
features
The caterpillars have a shiny black head and a light brown body. On their backs they carry a silk container that looks like a sleeping bag, which they also use for pupation .
Way of life
Not much is known about the way of life of this butterfly species.
Hunting behavior of the caterpillar
Due to the island location of Hawaii and the resulting isolated habitat, the caterpillars of this species developed a unique hunting behavior, which was documented by the team around Daniel Rubinoff from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu . Of the more than 150,000 known butterfly species, only 200 are known to be predatory and additionally as silk moths. The carnivorous caterpillars of Hyposmocoma molluscivora are one of them and, together with about four closely related species, are the only known ones that only eat snails and also use their silk to catch their prey. The approximately seven to ten millimeters long caterpillars live on leaves, but they cannot eat them. They camouflage themselves with a shell made of silk in which they have worked moss and leaves and look for a snail of the genus Tornatellides of about the same size that is resting or sleeping on a leaf. The snail shell is then attached to the leaf with the silk threads so that the mollusc cannot let itself fall and escape or retreat into its house and seal it. This process usually takes about half an hour. If the prey is then secured in this way, the caterpillars crawl out of their self-spun quiver, crawl into the mouth opening of the snail shell and eat the snail alive. The meal usually lasts the whole day, and some of the caterpillars then carry the empty snail shell around with them. According to the researchers, this is probably used for camouflage.
A common trait of caterpillars that are unable to digest any other food, they also have an inflexible digestive system.
Entomologists have now proven this behavior in four closely related species that also live on the Hawaiian Islands.
literature
- Daniel Rubinoff, WP Haines: Web-spinning caterpillar stalks snails. In: Science . Volume 309, No. 5734, 2005, p. 575, doi: 10.1126 / science.1110397 . PMID 16040699 .
Web links
- Bondage games in Hawaii. On: Wissenschaft.de from July 22, 2005
- David Perlman, SFGate (2005): Caterpillars with a taste for the flesh of snails / Biologist finds new species in Hawaii SFGate