- Hyposmocoma molluscivora
Taxobox
name = "Hyposmocoma molluscivora"
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Arthropod a
classis =Insect a
ordo =Lepidoptera
subordo =Glossata
unranked_familia =Ditrysia
superfamilia =Gelechioidea
familia =Cosmopterigidae
genus = "Hyposmocoma "
species = "H. molluscivora"
binomial = "Hyposmocoma molluscivora"
binomial_authority = (Rubinoff,2005 )"Hyposmocoma molluscivora" is a
Hawaii anmoth whoselarva e arepredator s, capturingsnail s in theirsilk , much like a hunting spider's web, and then crawling inside the snail's shell to eat it alive. It has been called the snail eating caterpillar or the flesh-eating caterpillar, though no common name has been widely prescribed to it.They are case bearing moths, spinning a loose shell of their own which they carry around with them as protection, like
bagworm s. The specific snails they eat are of the "Tornatellides "genus .The caterpillar, which lives exclusively on the island of
Maui , is about convert|0.3|in|mm|0|lk=on long, and sometimes decorate their silk case with actual snail shells, perhaps ascamouflage .There are about 200 species of
Lepidoptera (moths or butterflies) whose larva are predatory, out of 150,000 known Leptidoptera species overall. However, this is one of the 4 known species that eat snails.References
*
External links
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/23/MNGC6DSHEP1.DTL SFGate article on the discovery of this species.]
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