WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny, snail-eating caterpillars found in Hawaiian rain forests tie up their prey with sticky silk and snack on them at leisure, surprised scientists said on Thursday.
It is the first time that caterpillars that eat snails or any other mollusk have been found, the researchers write in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
And while caterpillars of all kinds spin silk to make cocoons, this is the first time one has been seen to use it as spiders do to capture prey.
"Although all caterpillars have silk glands, this predatory caterpillar uses silk in a spiderlike fashion to capture and immobilize prey," Daniel Rubinoff and William Haines at University of Hawaii wrote in their report.
The caterpillars of the newly described species, Hyposmocoma molluscivora, are small -- about a third of an inch (8 mm) long. Wrapped in their cocoons, they "lumber along" leaves, Rubinoff and Haines said.
"The caterpillars do not eat plant foliage, even when starving," they wrote.
Instead, they hunt Tornatellides snails.
When they find one, "they immediately begin to spin silk webbing attaching the snail shell to the leaf on which it rests, apparently to prevent the snail from sealing itself against the leaf or dropping to the ground," the researchers wrote.
One day a man walks in the bar and sits next to an attractive woman. After sitting for a few minutes, the man glances at his watch. The woman, making small talk, turns to him and asks him, "Is your date running late?"
He turned to her and replied, "No, I was just looking at my state of the art watch".
"State of the art watch?", she asked. "And just what makes it so 'state of the art'?".
He replied, "It tells me the answer to almost any question I ask it. Right now, it's telling me you're not wearing a bra or panties".
The woman laughed and said, "Well, your watch must be wrong because I am definitely wearing both."
"Damn!", the man said while tapping on his watch, "This thing's an hour fast again!".
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Neil Young will release his latest album, "Prairie Wind," as a CD/DVD package Sept. 20, he said on his Web site (http://www.neilyoung.com).
"The DVD shows us recording the whole record," Young said. "Every note you hear, you see!"
The Reprise Records set is expected to feature contributions from keyboardist Spooner Oldham, pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith and drummer Carl Himmel.
Young will also be the subject of a concert film to be shot during several performances next month at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. The project will be directed by Jonathan Demme ("Stop Making Sense," "The Silence of the Lambs").
While full touring plans have yet to be confirmed, Young is set to appear at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert Sept. 18 in Tinley Park, Ill., which will feature performances from Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Wilco and new addition Kenny Chesney.
Young will also perform at his long-running Bridge School fundraiser Oct. 29-30 in Mountain View, Calif.
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