16 posts
There are a LOT of animals being saved from extinction…rhinos, cheetahs, snow leopards, etc,. Most of them are regal or furry or cute or just plain huggable. The Weta Punga are not ANY of those things. Weta Punga literally means “God of Ugl
Shel Silverstein once had a poem about a snail that lived in your nose and would bite your finger off. Maybe he was inspired by something that’s been going on in Africa that nobody’s ever paid much attention to…until now… A US pathobiologic
For two decades Eric Warrant has literally had a pretty crappy job. As a student who specializes in optics at the University of Lund in Sweden, he has been passionately studying the last creature on earth that you’d think of when it came to
Spiders are a little creepy to most people, right? Well that other percent that didn’t think they were creepy? You can come join the rest of us now. You’re walking through the woods and notice an interesting looking spider in the middle of
Every year at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the annual meeting of the Explorers’ Club takes place. One of the highlights of the event is the gala dinner and its infamous cocktail party which is like the more sophisticated and classy vers
Robotics design is continually making all those creepy robot-takeover concepts part of our future reality. Check this thing out. It’s a ‘robot’ that imitates the actions of a worm but has the uncanny creepy factor of a maggot when you conti
Since face-eating and bath-salting have finally jumped the shark, a new trend is beginning to emerge… Only days ago we reported that the base of Mount St. Helens in Washington is swarming with tent caterpillars. Insects are now climbing the
Mount St. Helens erupted almost 32 years ago. The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument area around the base of the volcano is monitored by the U.S. Forest-Service and its goal is to not interfere with the natural processes taking pla
Let’s imagine Mother Nature wanted to create a wasp to remind us that she’s still very much in charge of things. Let’s say she’s been looking at a lot of HR Giger’s work for inspiration. Now let’s say that she’s already finished it and rele
During an early WeirdThings podcast, Brian and Justin were put into one of Andrew’s scenarios involving ‘flying’ snakes in Russia. Neither of them were happy with the idea of snakes launching themselves from trees onto their prey. Here’s an
Scientists have announced the discovery of an entire new order of insects that has recently been excavated in South America dating from the Lower Cretaceous period, between 146 and 100 million years ago. Both adults and larval stages of the
Scientists have recently discovered that the exoskeleton of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) contains special structures that trap sunlight and convert it to energy. Using an atomic force microscope they discovered that the yellow ban
A species of assassin bug, Stenolemus bituberus, sneaks onto spiders’ webs and pretends to be prey, then captures and eats the spider when it comes to investigate. It was noted that on occasion the ploy of the assassin bug failed and it end
Newly discovered 50 million year old amber deposits in northwest India have revealed more than 700 insect species representing 55 families of insects inside. Included in the findings so far are many social insects such as bees, termites, an
Good morning to you too! Bugs. Dew. Camera. Many more where this came from. Hello Monday. Thanks to Weird Things reader Marty. [Daily Mail]
The above picture is from a 1910 issue of The Strand Magazine in a feature entitled “If Insects Were Bigger.” In a pre-World War society, I can empathize that this could be seen as humanity’s biggest threat. Click AFTER THE JUMP for a coupl