Mary's Monday Metazoan: What a lovely smile!

This one is just... creepy.
And a little fascinating.
But creepy. And fascinating. *nod*

Very alien. :)

Kafkaesque? :)

Be afraid - be veryslightly afraid!

This is NOT a micro-photograph. On the contrary, this could have been shrunk by a factor of 5!

... maximally reaching a weight and height of approximately 1.7 kilograms (3.7 lb) and 76 centimetres (30 in) respectively ...

(Wiki - I know, but good enough for this)

An example of deep-sea giantism. The land equivalent is the woodlouse(!!)

Looking at that photo, i wonder, could that, just possibly, be the controlling intelligence behind PETA?

I was gonna ask how it tastes ...

But I can't get myself to contemplate eating one ...

That's one huge bug - but does it taste like lobster?

Sili @5,

However, in northern Taiwan and other areas, they are common at seaside restaurants, served boiled and bisected with a clean lateral slice. The white meat, similar to crab or lobster in texture, is then easily removed...
Source Wiki

I was gonna ask how it tastes ...

But I can't get myself to contemplate eating one ...

Wikipedia says the meat is like lobster or crab and that it is eaten in northern Taiwan at seaside restaurants... Hmmm. I'm going to pick up my cousin (who works for a cruise liner) at a seaside town in Taiwan tomorrow when her ship docks (I live in Taipei). Methinks I just found what we're eating tomorrow.

J.J.E.

The Nat Geo link has another pic with this beast being held int wo hands - it's that large. Might not be as good as lobster though - these are a lot less compartmentalized and thus harder to clean.

O.K. - for those gourmet adventurers out there - let me know how this works out dipped in melted butter.

Whoa, 2.5 feet long. It looks like the small bug out of Starship Troopers. Look out Buenos Aires.

Intelligent Design?
Possibly, but I wish He/She/it had spent more time on my knees and lumbar spine.

When I first looked at the photo I thought "How cute! I just want to tickle his little tummy."

Then I read how big he was and decided running away may be a better move.

He is still beautiful in a creepy kind of way, though.

I, for one, welcome our new massive insect overlords

fucking smug arthropods

I'd lke to wipe that 'lovely smile' right off its chelicerae mandibles. And also off its maxillae. And also off its maxillipeds.

fucking high-hatted arthropods with their fancy-schmancy mouthparts how I hate them

kitty.

Deep-sea isopod - even creepier is watching video of live ones brought up - like a woodlouse in giant slow-motion, but the legs still beat in that oscillating pattern.

ok isopods don't have maxillipeds, but STILL!

In fact, a reasonable translation of "isopod" is "doesn't have any specialization of thoracic appendages" like maxillipeds or claws.

maxillae (head-segment appendages) are bad enough

There are some more images of similar bugs at this site, click on the internal links for more views.

Great Bugs... effectively a meter long (there is good evidence that the biggest ones haven't been collected), carnivorous, and they run in swarms. Of such things are Grade Z sci-fi movies made.

Oops..The link

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/31/2253964.aspx

That would shut my neighbor's annoying pit bull up.

This is why I don't eat arthropods. People laugh when I tell them insects and crustaceans are closer cousins than insects and arachnids, but let's see them eat a giant fucking pillbug like you eat a lobster.

See the second picture at http://driftline.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/marine-critter-thursday-giant… for the scale of these things.

Great Bugs... effectively a meter long

That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

A wonderful time to link to the Insect Pit Scene in Peter Jackson's King Kong remake.

Gross is not the word.

@ Andyo, and the rest referring to this as a 'bug'. Isopods are crustaceans, just funny looking ones (although compared to barnacles, not THAT funny looking).

/SIWOTI

People laugh when I tell them insects and crustaceans are closer cousins than insects and arachnids

insects are crustaceans

It's kinda cute in a horrifically terrifying way.

Sven, don't you mean arthropods, not crustaceans?

Nope.
Insects are crustaceans.

SciTeacher,

I was referring to the crustacean known as a "pillbug".

Another of those 'nested' phylogenies, then. Thanks, Sven, I hadn't seen that paper yet.

Well that's even more to my point! Interesting, seems it's rather new stuff.

EEEEEEEEEEK!

whack whack whack whack whack whack

EEEEEEEEEEK!

whack whack whack whack whack whack

Is it dead yet?

Wait, I think I saw a leg move!

(reaches for laser cannon)

A friend of mine who is a veterinary surgeon is terrified of water bugs and cockroaches.

I think if she say this she would go insane. She would start hyperventilating for sure.

I think I'll send the link. ;)

The Questionable Content t-shirt machine has this shirt.

Steveinthecity @ 36: See me @ 35.

whack whack whack

MadScientist | April 5, 2010 6:57 AM:

That's one huge bug - but does it taste like lobster?

It tastes like cockroach. Which is a lot like lobster, but greasy.

I'd go for the belly.

I very much like its golden eyes. I wonder why it has those.....