Seriously Spooky Species

Nature Talk
21

The robber flies creep me out especially the ones that look like bumblebees. I like to find them and get photos for iNat but, they are creepy.

On the other hand, the brown creeper (Certhia americana) birds are very cute!

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22

Yesss, I love brown creepers. I just saw one for the first time a few days ago.

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23

Congrats on the find!

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24

my favorite - super creepy “doll’s eyes”.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/63062-Actaea-pachypoda
bonus that the berries are poisonous, but of course they are.

also fungi like https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/58698-Xylaria-polymorpha

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25

Hydnellum fungi, of course! Several species ooze blood red (or blue!!) droplets.

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26

Ticks. Ugh. Ticks.

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27

I just remembered being in the tropics at night. Looks like there’s nothing around. Then you turn on your headlamp and see HUNDREDS of wolf spider eyes glowing back at you. ALL watching you. I’m not afraid of spiders, but I found that somewhat creepy!

On the theme of headlamps, it’s also creepy when you see a pair of eyes that are WAY bigger than spider eyes, maybe at the level of your head. It’s probably our primal hominid fear of big cats at night.

On the theme of scary surprises, it’s also creepy when you’re in the boreal forest and you hear a LOUD branch break very close to you. It’s usually just a moose doing its thing, but your initial, primal thought is, “Whatever that is, it’s big enough to kill me!”

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28

There’s also that imagination factor at play when you see a clump of grass at a distance and think it’s a person, when you thought you were alone.

I’m not an anxious person, but things like that happen from time to time (meaning, you see an inanimate object, and your brain somehow freaks you out).

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29

But especially Tree of Heaven (AKA Tree of Hell). Invasive roots that can destroy the foundation of your house! Roots so tough they resist being dug up with bulldozers! Millions of air distributed seeds! Fast growing! Aaaaaagh!

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30

Here’s a rather creepy looking fish. The mouth and eyes are a bit disturbing, especially the fake teeth.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/169919

31

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82769632

This ragworm, with hundreds of tentacles was kind of creepy.
What is it about tentacles?

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32

Plus the shoots are easy to confuse with an edible species, Aralia nudicaulis.

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33

Great source of food for the horrible spotted lanternfly!

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34

But do they help control it at all?

35

I don’t know. I just read that the way to get rid of lanternflies is to get rid of the equally invasive trees they love.

36

There is an orchid genus Dracula, but I don’t know that I’d call it spooky, unless you count the pareidolia effect.

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37

They look like they have faces.

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38

Totally forgot one notable mention: Helvella vespertina, or really any elvin saddle. Not really that creepy, but certainly spooky.

I remember the first time I saw one, I was really confused. “This is a mushroom?!”

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39

Totally agree - very spooky! I’ve heard of this species, and seeing pictures of the way they glow in the dark this eerie shade of green is suuuuuper cool! They don’t occur in my region, though.

40

any parasitoid wasp, and that one zombie fungus that controls the ants, those are creepy

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