Today's nightmare-fuel creature, brought to you by Taiwan

Yea I saw this on Reddit.

Turns out these fuckers are from Taiwan. Chordodes formosanus they call them. I guess the FormosAnus part really describes them.

Sleep well tonight.

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This dude hasn’t moved from my window all day. Maybe he’s possessed.

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Haha, waiting for the formasan to sue your anus of for losing face :slight_smile:

Have seen plenty of the green ones last year. I think they are cute and got told they eat plenty of moscitos…

I saw one of these up the path from Dagouxi Park in Neihu about five years ago on a night nature hike with Taiwan Adventure Outings. I foolishly left the main group and investigated what I thought might be a pair of tree frog’s eyes, so I didn’t see the zombie mantis throw itself onto the steps towards the stream or the worm crawl out of it. I only saw the worm writhing in the dust next to the empty mantis afterwards. I don’t know why that one didn’t make its host take it all the way to the water before coming out, but it was lucky for us that it didn’t.

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My biggest irrational fear is of Jerusalem crickets, found in southern California where I grew up (Google them; I can’t even bring myself to post a pic). At one point in my life I was trying to get over my fear by doing research on them. That’s when I discovered that these horsehair worms that Marco posted above also love to zombify my nemesis.

Ever since then I’ve had conflicted feelings: As much as I hate these dreaded spawn of Satan, I do feel sorry for them when they die in this horrible way by these worms.

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I dont agree with the morality of the practice. But one way mantid collectors fool themselves into “cleaning out” worms is half drowning them. The worms eventually eject themselves but surely there are more inside i would presume. Squeezing the right angle ofthe upper abdomen works too. Have had a few while phographing that shat out solid 15 to 20cm worms before. Its quite alarming!!

Taiwan has some serious parasites that can kill people. Best to be a bit careful. Especially in fresh water, as the locals say :mask:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Chordodes_formosanus.jpg/768px-Chordodes_formosanus.jpg

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