A reader from Stillwater sent in a few photos of this lovely creature. They thought it was just some plant debris until it started crawling. Can you guess what it is?
Obviously, the important clue is that they're from Stillwater. This must be a larval spawn of Michele Bachmann.
Seriously, though, I know exactly what that is: they're very distinctive. It's a hag moth caterpillar.
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Now that is seriously amazing!
I would never have guessed its identity. Truly awesome!
I saw one of those things on a plant when I was a kid. I ran like hell. Inauspicious start for a budding antenna-head!
Limacodid moth larvae are some weird-pygidium bugs!
I would have guessed nudibranch had it not been terrestrial.
What's the scale on that thing... a few inches long, a foot long, ... ?
Whoa! Niiiice camouflage!
I'd have guessed it's a cephalopod, but that's just because of the blog's theme.
Are those "eyes" at the tips of the "arms"?
My guess is: "something ugly."
Yup, hag moth it is......down here in Florida, I've seen them eating Hickory leaves. Very cool "slug-like" movements. Here's another link to the entry in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hag_moth
gordonsowner, Hag Moth caterpillars usually grow upwards of 20 feet long and can weigh up to 250 lbs :)
... and they can leap up to ten feet and devour a horse carcass in thirty seconds.
Awesome, PZ, you're like the arthropod Bill Nye. I only have the same pictures to go off of, my dad found the little guy, but I believe the scale, based on the curvature of the dish and what I remember of its size, to be somewhere on the order of a half-inch to an inch.
As for the Doctor's alternate suggestion... well, until Patty Wetterling mops up Stillwater's little mistake in November and the place goes back to being known for its incredible surplus of antique shops, maybe I'll start being hyper-literal and just say I'm from May Township :)
I went with the safe, odds-on bet "beetle" and lost my lunch money. :)
Well, you should have seen it BEFORE it evolved ... was actually kinda sexy then ...
It crawled from one of Rick Santorum's nostrils; and said, "No way I'm staying in a mind like that."
Oooooo, one word: Shoggoth!
They thought it was just some plant debris until it started crawling
Google "hag moth youtube" to see some.
demallien: Oooooo, one word: Shoggoth!
I hate you so much for thinking of that before me.
That's awesome.
Anyone know how many hit points they have?
Which way is it going?
There's nothing like getting linked by PZ. You might enjoy the Bachtopus:
http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2006/08/larval-spawn-of-michele-bachma…
Sweet Jesus, can we have some sort of scale in future? I was convinced that thing was like two feet long. I will be having nightmares.