When you get hurt, your body forms a blood clot to stop bleeding. But what about insects? Researchers have recently shed light on how caterpillars can quickly stop bleeding, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for a long time. In contrast to vertebrates, whose blood clotting mechanisms have been well-known for a long time, insects rely on hemolymph (their equivalent of blood). Hemolymph lacks red blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets. Instead, hemolymph uses hemocytes, cells similar to amoebas, for clotting and immune defense. Now, researchers led by Dr. Konstantin Kornev, a professor at…