#781: Umbrella-mouth Gulper

The Umbrella-mouth Gulper is a deep sea fish, named for his enormous jaws. These are used to consume crustaceans and it is thought that he swims along, mouth agape, collecting everything in his path. Squids and smaller invertebrates also are collected, as well as gret mouthfuls of water. These are flushed out through his gills. As he matures, his jaws and teeth atrophy, to be replaced by enlarged olfactory organs. These may help him locate a mate in his almost lightless habitat. It is suspected that he will die soon after spawning. Very little else is known about this bizarre predator, as it lives at such extreme depths that it is generally only seen when inadverently captured in a fishing net.

#711: Solifuge

The Solifuge is a speciesw of arachnid, sometimes known as the Camel Spider, although she is not a spider. Fearsome in appearance, and growing up to 15 cm in length, she is the stuff of nightmares. The apparent front pair of limbs are in fact sensory organs, known as pedipalps. Her most impressive feature are her jaws - which can be up to a third of her body length. These are used to seize potential prey - invertebrates, lizards, small birds, rodents - and grind them to a pulp so that they can be digested. Solifuges are not venomous and of no threat to humans, except for the horror/surprise factor.

#677: Portugese Man o' War

Despite thier appearance, the Portugese Man O' War is not a Jellyfish, instead they are a siphonophore, a colony of specialised cells that are combined together to create a single, deadly entity. The upper, gas-filled sac acts as a sail, allowing the winds to direct the Man O' War across the water and keep them afloat. This gas bladder contains a mixture of carbon monoxide, nitrogen, oxygen and argon. If threatened, this sail can be deflated allowing the organism to submerge. The tentacles can reach up to 50 m in length, and each bears stinging, venom-filled nemocysts. These entangle, sting and kill small fish and other sea creatures, which are then dragged up into the main body to be consumed.

Being stung by a Man O' War is a painful experience, with serious side effects such as fever, shock and interference with heart and lungs.

#669: Roundworm

There are perhaps as many as 1 million species of Roundworm, a Phylum of Nematode, over half of which are parasitic. Widespread and versatile, various species inhabit every ecosystem from the deepest oceanic trenches to the driest deserts. They are also, most famously, known to occupy the internal organs of vertebrates, but species are also adapted to parasitise plants and insects as well. Long and slender, parasitic Roundworms have a distinctive head, which may contain head shields and three or six lips, equipped with an array of teeth. They may also be ornamented with bristles, ridges and other distinctive structures. Eggs are deposited in the soil via the host's fecal matter, where they can be ingested directly, or indirectly, by a new host. Once hatched, the larvae may affect the host's behavioural patterns and can have a detrimental effect on their health.

Creature Feature #451: Mantidfly

This post is dedicated to Robert Silberbauer, who introduced me to this almost-chimerical critter last night.
(He's an entomologist)

The Mantidflies are a Family of small-to-medium-sized carnivorous insects that resemble a hybrid between wasp and mantis. The wasp resemblance is an example of Batesian mimicry: in which one animal resembles another, usually more dangerous one, to deter predation. These nocturnal insects hunt in the same manner as the diurnal mantids, lying in wait for the prey to come close, then snatching it up with their front forelimbs. In some species, the juveniles, in their larval stage, predate spiders and their egg sacs, even going so far as to parasitise the female spider and draining her hemolymph (arthropod blood).

Creature Feature #61: Bobbitworm

The Bobbitworm is an acquatic polychaete worm, found in warmer oceans - such as the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic. He generally lives in tunnels beneath the ocean floor. Here he lurks, waiting for his prey to come close. When something - ie: a fish - brushes against one of his five antennae he strikes with devastating speed and can actually chop his prey in half. If that is not enough, he also injects a narcotizing or killing toxin into the victim, so that it can be safely ingested, especially important if the prey is larger than his gut. He can grow up to 3 metres long - although most measure around 1m - but is only an inch or so in diameter.

Here’s a Bobbitworm in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H4J5QDQeA4

Creature Feature #34: Anglerfish

This terrifying underwater denizen is a Humpback Anglerfish. She lives at depths of up to 2,000 m deep, where light never penetrates and her world is the murky black of darkest night. Therefore, she needs a light to show her the way - or to be precise, to show the males the way. And to lure food. She can measure up to 20cm long, and the males only measure 3cm. There are numerous species of anglerfish, almost all of which are hideous by human standards, which share similar traits - namely the light and predatory nature.

In some species of Anglerfish, the male locates his mate and then attachs himself to her permanently, his swimming organs atrophying away and in some cases actually connecting into her circulatory system, essentially becoming a new reproductory organ . Sometimes a female might collect a number of suitors in the form of these parasitic males.  For the Humpback, the male of her species is free-swimming and remains so for all of his life, connecting with the female only to mate, which might be rather risky, given his diminutive size and the amount of voracious predators he shares the water with. Unlike some other species, he has well developed jaws and is capable of predating.


But how does this light work? Firstly, it is called an esca, and it is home to a species of  symbiotic bacteria. These bacteria do not bioluminesce on their own, they require some sort of chemical input from the fish.

The other use for the esca is, of course, predation. The esca can be wriggled, to mimic a tasty morsel for a hungry fish, but then that hungry fish becomes the tasty morsel. Ah, but nature is cruel! Anglerfish possess an impressive array of teeth and enormous jaws. Their teeth are angled such that once the prey is swallowed, it cannot escape and their stomachs can distend to enormous size, allowing an anglerfish to eat prey up to twice the size of its body.

They say it's a dog-eat-dog world, but really, it's a fish-eat-fish world. Dogs rarely engage in cannibalism, but for many of the piscian origin, the only available food is other fish species. Of course, it's not cannibalism unless you are the same species.