Seriously Spooky Species

I think there’s more than one.

I’ve always loved ghost pipe:

3 Likes

Lanternflies vs. Tree of Hell? I don’t think I am betting on the lantern flies.

1 Like

Nice photo!

Xenos peckii
A parasite of Northern paper wasps - turns them into zombies. I’ve been creeped out ever since I found this:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/234243439

suriname toad make me ewww AND SCREAM!!!

5 Likes

Thank you, but it’s not mine.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3717484

Someone with trypophobia would likely be horrified by this toad.

3 Likes

I may be a bit trypophobic. That toad is giving me nightmares! :grimacing:

4 Likes

Even if you didn’t take the photo, I don’t think I ever would have seen it if you hadn’t posted it. So, thanks!

2 Likes

yeah probably, but i know of a specific one (not its name) lol
i know almost nothing about fungi

1 Like

Was it Cordyceps?

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 on the floor and walls.

3 Likes

It can be spooky when animals look straight at you with no fear. And not in an island biogeography / naïveté way.

King cobras are also known for doing this. They are sizing you up.

2 Likes

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

4 Likes

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


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