this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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The beginning of the article.

Scientists in Hawaii have discovered a new, rare and bizarre species of carnivorous, bone-collecting caterpillars. After hatching, the tiny insects live almost their entire lives in the web of a single spider, eating any weakened or recently deceased insects that have been caught by their host – all while adorned in a grisly collection of body parts.

"They'll also find bits of dry bug jerky stuck to the web and eat that," said Daniel Rubinoff, a professor and entomology chair at the University of Hawaii Manoa. They're not just meat-eating but also cannibalistic. If they come across another, smaller caterpillar they will happily consume it. "That's why we never find more than one caterpillar per web," Rubinoff said.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

that live in one 5 mile area in Oahu

cool, so it can be named in the Hawaiian language right? So that its name will reflect its native habitat?

are working on publishing a species description that will include a formal scientific (Latin) name

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There's nothing to stop it having a species name using an Indigenous word, though itll have to fit into the already extremely latin (and ancient greek) heavy family genus etc.

This is a pretty weirdly written pop science article i dont know what it says (LATIN) after scentific. odds are it ends up as something Oestioii tho

there's plenty of plants and animals named after people for example

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's nothing to stop it having a species name using an Indigenous word

honkeys

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

nevermind hawaiian OR latin, the caterpillar deserves a proper american name, like SpiderMKULTRA Badburger