Metalmark moth caterpillars can build their own versions of home security systems out of silk, according to new research.
Until now, spiders were thought to be the only animals to detect tremors in their webs caused by foreign objects.
(Read "Deadly Silk" in National Geographic Magazine.)
The new study suggests that some caterpillars in the genus Brenthia can also sense disturbances and are using threads in their silk shelters like tripwires.
"I noticed that the caterpillars kept a couple of really long hairs in contact with the silk shelter, and was curious whether they were using the silk lines of the shelter as a predator detecting system," said lead study author Jadranka Rota, a biologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The study could shed light on the evolution of animals that use silk to detect intruders.
"The metalmark [moth] is probably not alone," noted Lee Dyer, an ecologist at the University of Nevada in Reno who was not involved in the study.
"There are a lot of silk-weaving caterpillars. I think we are going to find this behavior in a number of other species."
Down the Hatch
Metalmark moth caterpillars are known to build protective shelters out of silk on the leaves where they dwell.
(Related: "Moths Elude Spiders by Mimicking Them, Study Says" [February 14, 2007].)
The larvae chew small holes beneath the shelters to use as escape hatches when danger nears.
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