Posted: Jul 11, 2017 2:56 pm
The title here (also of the linked Nature article) is potentially misleading, because only Spodoptera exigua caterpillars have been studied, not caterpillars generally. Having said that, it is true that the first hatched caterpillars of some butterfly species tend to eat not only their own egg shell, but also any unhatched eggs nearby on the plant, before starting to eat the main course (the plant).