It’s almost Halloween, and the spooky season has begun! But, being iNatters, we can’t stick to ghosts and zombies and Frankenstein. Does anyone know any plant, animal, fungus, or other life form that has a spooky habit, scary appearance, or just gives you the chills? I’ll start us of with the black-…

[image] AdamWargon: Vampire bats of the subfamily Desmodontinae . Creepy because they hit you while you’re sleeping. the first picture of the taxon page is so cute! its a headshot with the tongue sticking out(?) lol

The only bat I ever took out of a mist net that actually turned when it was my hand and looked straight at me was a vampire bat. It was spooky because only then I realized it was not a “regular” bat. I’ve not been in their roost caves but I understand it’s kind of a horror show with digested blood…

[image] jnstuart: The only bat I ever took out of a mist net that actually turned when it was in my hand and looked straight at me was a vampire bat. It was spooky It can be spooky when animals look straight at you with no fear. And not in an island biogeography / naïveté way. King cobras ar…

Xenos peckii, absolutely! I found one wasp with at least 10 of them on board

The Hand of the Wicked Witch of the South . Coming for a poacher near you

Yeah, twisted-wing insects have one of the more bizarre and disturbing reproductive methods. There’s a project collecting observations of hosts (since often users do not create a separate observation for the parasite): https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/hymenopteran-hosts-of-strepsiptera

Zombie finger [66874B76-1E1E-452F-81A1-8925D23D2074_1_105_c] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/249824099 (if anybody can help with the ID…)

dead man’s fingers! idk if it has another name, but the grey-black mushroom(?) that grows around dead wood and looks like a bunch of rotting fingers

Couple of seaweed ones too - drowned sailors

Seriously Spooky Species

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Seriously Spooky Species

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