Sometimes Mother Nature Just Wants to Freak You Out

Just like trees not giving a crap, sometimes Mother Nature just wants to freak you out.

Here are just a few ways she goes about her freakish ways.

Clathrus archeri, also known as Devils finger Fungus,. Not only is it ugly but It smells like putrid flesh.

devil's fingers,is a fungus indigenous to Australia and New Zealand, and an introduced species in Europe, North America and Asia. The young fungus erupts from a suberumpent egg by forming into four to seven elongated slender arms initially erect and attached at the top. The arms then unfold to reveal a pinkish-red interior covered with a dark-olive spore-containing gleba. In maturity it smells like putrid flesh.

Have a look at this spider covered in fungus!


Here is an owls nest that it has so elegantly surrounded with lots of dead lemmings.

Snowy Owls are known to stash a rodent here and there around the nest to feed their young. But 70 lemmings — the number counted by biologist Jean-Francois Therrien — is pretty much unheard of.

Here is a momma centipede protecting her new babies.



A lava pit, sucking the souls of the damned to hell.



Cymothoa Exigua is a parasite that enters a fishes gills, eats it's tounge off, attaches itself to the stub and becomes the fish's new tounge!

This parasite enters fish through the gills, and then attaches itself to the fish's tongue. The female attaches to the tongue and the male attaches on the gill arches beneath and behind the female. The parasite severs the blood vessels in the fish's tongue, causing the tongue to fall off. It then attaches itself to the stub of what was once its tongue and becomes the fish's new tongue

A hermit crab has found a doll head to use as its new shell



A caribou who's antlers are shedding their velvet



An antartic worm called Eulagisca gigantea

Polynoids are generally considered to be carnivores, but its diet is unknown, and very little is known about its biology.

A wingless fly who attaches itself to a bats head where it will live forever.

after millions of years of co-evolution with their furry hosts, bat flies have become highly specialised parasites. For starters, their bodies became flattened and very hard, making it almost impossible for their hosts to squash them. Special "claws" at the end of each foot and hairs on the legs make it extremely difficult to dislodge them from fur. "These insects know the value of a good host and once they land on the furry back of a bat, they never leave it again," explains Naskrecki.

And sometimes Mother just decides that your silly road has got to go.



More here.

Some bonus photos for you

Snake eats bug, same bug eats way out of snake.


Snake headed caterpillar

No doubt.

Fantastic images!!!

Nice thread.

The fungus is just amazing. Spooky as all get out.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Awesome pictures and fascinating stuff.
I just love nature and it's gems of fun creepiness and it's amazing adaptations.
Thanks Faux!

a reply to: FauxMulder


When I worked my first job in seafood product management we used to call the Cymothoa Exigua 'snapper bugs' since most of the time red/lane/stripped snappers had them.

There was also a swordfish parasite that was a long worm that lived inside the flesh, sometimes getting close to 6' long and poking through the skin. We called those 'swordfish crunchies' since people would occasionally come back and tell us that there was something crunchy in their swordfish steak after they cooked and ate it.

Yum.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Good thing I don't like fish!

Although something crunchy might help it taste better

Brilliant! A Devils Finger Fungus is truly a sight to behold/smell. The sight and smell of one can foil any chance of sex on a date, for example. Now that's ugly.

As for Cymothoa_exigua, the first time I spotted one it was in a restaurant. I kept eating and waited until I was done with my plate to show it to my (future) wife. She screamed and almost vomited on the table right then and there.

Ooopsie. Not exactly a romantic moment.

originally posted by: Namdru
Brilliant! A Devils Finger Fungus is truly a sight to behold/smell. The sight and smell of one can foil any chance of sex on a date, for example. Now that's ugly.

As for Cymothoa_exigua, the first time I spotted one it was in a restaurant. I kept eating and waited until I was done with my plate to show it to my (future) wife. She screamed and almost vomited on the table right then and there.

Ooopsie. Not exactly a romantic moment.

Come to think of it, Cymothoa_exigua is basically a more, er, palatable (as it were ) version of this.

originally posted by: FauxMulder
A wingless fly who attaches itself to a bats head where it will live forever.

A wingless fly... shouldn't it be called a 'walk'?

Seriously though, I wonder if lava formations like that are the inspiration behind Dante's Inferno or some of the lore of Hell. It really looks like bodies.

Cool stuff.

originally posted by: FauxMulder
Good thing I don't like fish!

Although something crunchy might help it taste better

There's only certain types of fish I will eat since I have seen way to many nasty things living inside the flesh of other fish.

Just the kind of thread to scroll down SLOWLY..
Reading carefully the descriptions ABOVE the pictures, thank you for that.

Otherwise I would have exited after the first two or three pics.

People talk so much about the beauty of nature ... but a sizable percentage of nature is terrifying and/or repulsive.

These were fascinating images but I feel quesy. So... thank you?

a reply to: FauxMulder


Who wore it better?

I think Mrs. Owl has been spending too much time in the survival threads.

It's great to prep for you and your family, no doubt. However, I believe she has crossed the VERY fine line of prepping/hoarding.

Awesome pics!! Thank you!

originally posted by: VegHead

I feel quesy. So... thank you?

Yes, you're welcome

originally posted by: knowledgehunter0986
a reply to: FauxMulder

Who wore it better?

Definitely erector set baby face spider!

originally posted by: FauxMulder
Just like trees not giving a crap, sometimes Mother Nature just wants to freak you out.

Here are just a few ways she goes about her freakish ways.

Thank you for posting this, I really appreciate the time that must've taken you!
Those were all good, but the lava people were so good that I had to keep looking to make sure IT WASN'T bodies, that was something!
Oh yeah, what are the odds that the crab got inside of the baby head with the eyes pointing up, AND it was level? It wouldn't have hardly been noticed (probably) if the eyes were on the underside... I loved that one to.

Best thread in a long time too. (I also saw your tree thread, that was very good too)
Thank you!

a reply to: FauxMulder

I see lots of inspiration for HR Giger in some of these photos!

Combine the fungus with the caterpillar (image in the caterpillar nest at the bottom of the fungus) with the lava flows as a coating and you have one of those pods I would never stick my fat space helmet over in a million years!

Cool stuff! And spooky!

I didnt need to sleep tonight anyway, so thanks buddy!

a reply to: scojak

A wingless fly... shouldn't it be called a 'walk'?

He he. But seriously, it should called a bat-potato. Because it sits there feeding, like a couch potato, on a bat.

Except it lives on a live, leather-upholstered flying sofa that provides it with a constant supply of food, like a giant warm-blooded juice-box with creepy black-leather wings. So maybe it should be called "the Vicarious Bat-potato Fly".