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Posted: Thursday, July 21st, 2005 4:04 PM HST

Hawaiian caterpillars found with a taste for escargot

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A type of caterpillar with a taste for escargot rather than the normal vegetable diet has been discovered in Hawaii. Researchers report in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science that the caterpillar is the first ever observed to eat any kind of mollusk. Indeed, only about one-tenth of one percent of caterpillars eat anything but vegetables. Hyposmocoma molluscivora, however, will not eat the green stuff even when the caterpillar is starving. That's according to Daniel Rubinoff and William Haines of the University of Hawaii. 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 can't escape by dropping off the leaf. Then, the researchers say, it's snail-snacking time.