Hawaiian Caterpillar Has Unique Taste (mollusk eater - has a hankering for escargot)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 7/22/05 | Randolph E. Schmid - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A type of caterpillar with a taste for escargot rather than the normal vegetable diet has been discovered in Hawaii. The caterpillar is the first ever observed to eat any kind of mollusk, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Indeed, only about one-tenth of 1 percent of caterpillars eat anything but vegetables.

Hyposmocoma molluscivora, however, will not eat the green stuff even when the caterpiller is starving, say Daniel Rubinoff and William P. Haines of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu.

When these caterpillars come across a resting snail, they begin spinning silk of the type they use to make their cocoons. They wrap the silk around the snail, trapping it so the snail cannot escape by dropping off the leaf.

Then, the researchers say, it's snail-snacking time.

"They wrap 'em, up and then they go in, the snail doesn't really have a chance," Rubinoff said in a telephone interview.

The caterpillar "wedges its case next to or inside the snail shell and stretches much of its body out of the silk case, pursuing the retreating snail to the end of the shell from which there is no escape," Haines and Rubinoff report.

The researchers observed 18 different snail attacks by 10 different caterpillars.

The snails they studied were on Maui, but Rubinoff said others have since been found on three other Hawaiian islands — Molokai, Hawaii and Kauai.

A few caterpillars have been found to eat scale and other small insects but moving on to snails is a big shift, he said.

"I don't think we have any idea how something like that happens," Rubinoff said when asked how these caterpillars might have started on such a diet. "It's one of the things that makes Hawaii such a great place to do this research," he said, adding that there are probably a lot more unusual creatures waiting to be discovered.

Finding something like this "just never occurred to us," Rubinoff said. "Just because we didn't think of it doesn't mean its not right there."

___

On the Net:

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

[NormsRevenge]

Undated photo provided by the journal Science shows how a species of snail-eating caterpillar uses silk, like a spider, to pin down its snail prey. Having rendered the snail helpless and immobile, the caterpillar is entering the snail's shell to begin feeding on its soft flesh. A type of caterpillar with a taste for escargots rather than the normal vegetable diet of its kin has been discovered in Hawaii. It's the first caterpillar ever seen to eat any kind of mollusk, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Indeed, only about one-tenth of one percent of caterpillars eat anything but vegetables. (AP Photo/Journal Science)

[NormsRevenge]

Yeah.. I know. I know.

Why isn't this in BREAKING NEWS???


I always order escargot when my wife and I have the opportunity to do so,, and give it to her when it comes.

[nmh]

Interesting ... sure wouldn't want to be a snail around THIS caterpillar - YIKES!

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Perhaps the caterpillar's from France.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

At what point does the caterpillar inject the butter and garlic into the snail?

[Sacajaweau]

If this is BIG news, it only points out how much they don't know. So when species "disappear", is it man or MOTHER NATURE??

[Dallas59]

But I thought Bush was destroying the environment and animals were dying out because of the war in Iraq and Judeo-Christian values?

[nmh]

For me it makes me more awesome at His marvelous design.

Variations within species come and go. Apparently we don't know everything. Things like this just keep popping up defying our finite knowledge base.

[edcoil]

But its a race between a snail and a caterpiller - how long does that take? Must have taken hours for the "attack" 8-)

[followerofchrist]

I'm not so concerned with catepillars eating escargot. I want to know why HUMANS eat it. My first experience watching a rich lady eat raw snails cured me of the desire for "fine dining."

[nmh]

Ewwww!

Nothing like eating your opponent.

Yuck!

"and the winner is, ah, the only one left, ah the CATERPILLER!" It's also called cleaning up your competition. ;)

[Soliton]

Every time they find a new species, I wonder how Noah got them all on the boat.

[indcons]

Didn't know French caterpillars and humans shared the same diet. Amazing find indeed!!

[31R1O]

Actually, with enough butter and garlic a lot of things taste good.