KoC Fact: Stings to the Brain Really Calm Bugs Down!

This beautiful creature is a jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa), aka an emerald cockroach wasp. It is so-called because it attacks insects—usually a type of cockroach called Pariplaneta americana— and stings their brains, then lays eggs inside the still-living cockroach. The young baby jewel wasps live inside the cockroach and control its brain and slowly eat the insides of the cockroach.

EWW! What?!?

I’m sorry you read that, and I’m shocked I was so…so calm about it.

Jewel wasps live all over Africa, South Asia, and the Pacific islands. The female is about 2.2 cm (22 mm) and the male is slightly smaller and lacks a stinger.

The whole “babies control bugs’ brains” thing reminds me a lot of a tropical fungus called Cordyceps, which does exactly the same thing, but it grows out of the insect (usually an ant)’s head. The weird part is that Cordyceps fungi are made into a Chinese soup called “silkie”, which also contains seahorses (Hippocampus).

Did you know there are 54 species of seahorses in the world? Find out more about the dwarf seahorses in the on December 12!

KoC Fact: Nature is DUMB

Meet the absolutely amazing variable beautymark (Rhetus periander), also known as the periander metalmark. It’s lovely and beautiful and extremely colorful. It is from the Riodinidae family of butterflies.

The variable beautymark’s range is found in much of Central and South America, from Mexico down to Brazil and Argentina. Its habitat is lush, wet rainforests where it eats the rotting carcasses of dead tarantulas.

Wait. What was that last bit?

Yep. It’s true. Variable beautymarks absolutely guzzle dead tarantulas, which is extremely disgusting and depressing. :(

PS: 40th post already, and I published the 30th just four days ago. WHAT.

Happy Black Friday from the Magpie-Shrike!

These cute, very pretty little birds, magpie-shrikes (Urolestes melanoleucus), have a very scary and disturbing habit that I’m going to save for the end. For now, don’t hate these pretty little creatures.

Until the end. I’m going to stop being so repetitive now.

Magpie-shrikes are found chiefly in parts of Africa, such as Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, and Kenya.

Now for the scary, gross, horrifying, disturbing part. What do magpie-shrikes eat?

Not scary, eh?

Eh?

Eh.

Animals impaled on thorns.

They impale them themselves, you see. First they kill it—it can be anything from a small bird, a grasshopper, a treefrog, or a mouse to SMALL KITTEN—and then impale it on a thorn to save for later.

And it does this ALL DAY.

Oh, yeah. Why “Black Friday”? Two reasons: A) Magpie-shrikes are black and B) it gets tons of animals, just like shoppers get tons of stuff.

I know. I’m so clever.

At the End of the Rainbow, there are………Spiders?

This is the elegant jumping spider (Chrysilla lauta). It lives in rain forests from Burma, China, and Vietnam. The weird part is, though they have been known for a long time—they were described by Thorell in 1887—the only individuals known have been males.

I love spiders, but seriously—colorful spiders like the “elegant jumping spider”? Gross. (But very cute.)

Go elegant jumping spider. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

A List of the Scariest Worms Ever

Freaked out by earthworms? Coward. When you see this list of worms, you’ll find them cute and cuddly!

WORM #1

The first worm on our List of Terror is Eunice aphroditois, an annelid worm from the ocean, which has a terribly disturbing way of eatin’. (And cue the Jaws music.) I’ll just leave it for you to see in the .gif below…

WORM #2

Meet the bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus). What’s absolutely foul about this bad boy is the sheer size of it. It can grow to 180 feet (55 meters) long and 3.9 (10 cm) inches wide. (I secretly love them.)

WORM #3

This is probably the worst worm on the list: the heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis). It’s a tiny roundworm which is the smallest worm on the list. Sounds cute, but then, listen to the name—heart + worm. It infects the hearts of dogs, cats, sea lions, foxes, coyotes, wolves, ferrets, and…HUMANS. They are contracted from mosquitoes. Want to see pictures? Warning: Scroll down with caution!

Help…

Meet the Butterflies that Drink out of Eyeballs!

In the Amazon, weird phenomena take place—like this one. Butterflies drinkin’ tears.

These are butterflies from the genus Heliconius. They drink out of the eyes of turtles, crocodiles, birds, and HUMANS to get a specific amount of water and salt.

This is actually quite sensible because A) the butterflies are happy and salty and B) the butterflies on the face looks totally savvy.

The most common butterfly species to do this are postmen (Heliconius melpomene), numata longwings (H. numata), zebra heliconians (H. charithonia), and julias (H. julia).