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.

  • EllenKelly [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 day ago

    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