CREEPYBLOG

The Wisdom of Parasites

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:22:40 +0000

As an adult, Ampulex compressa seems like your normal wasp, buzzing about and mating. But things get weird when it's time for a female to lay an egg. She finds a cockroach to make her egg's host, and proceeds to deliver two precise stings. The first she delivers to the roach's mid-section, causing its front legs buckle. The brief paralysis caused by the first sting gives the wasp the luxury of time to deliver a more precise sting to the head.

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into its brain...more

A Menagerie of Bugs in Formaldehyde

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:42:34 +0000

As you may have surmised from "Frog Killing Day", I was a pretty creepy little kid. As an adult, I'd like to think I've become a little less so. During a recent trip to the Melbourne Musem of Natural History, I got see the creepy flare up in me, just like old times. There was an insect section, and in that insect section there was a wall of specimens in formaldehyde jars. Well, I'll be damned if I didn't spend damn near an hour taking pictures of the critters in those jars. Here, for your pleasure, are some of the most repugnant beasts to ever go "crunch" under foot.

MENAGERIE OF BUGS IN JARS

Xylotrupes Gideon Beetle

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 18:12:09 +0000

Xylotrupes Gideon Wallpaper

Range: southeast Asia, Indonesia, and northern Australia
Size: 35 - 70 mm

Widespread across the southeast Asian tropics is Xylotrupes gideon, a very common rhinoceros beetle that is completely black in color, and bears a very shiny texture. The horn design of Xylotrupes is extremely similar to that of the genus Dynastes of North and South America. One major difference however, is that the cephalic horn is bifurcated at the tip, whereas that of Dynastes is not. Along with Augosoma centaurus of western Africa, X. gideon can be said to represent a case of parallel evolution, as all three of these genera have developed very similar horn and body shapes... more

Killing Frogs Day

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 22:53:00 +0000

The idea of hunting frogs with sticks and pokers of various sizes, seemed not outside local traditions of boyhood misadventure at that moment. some of them i pounded across the back, and repeatedly, until they stopped moving. some were pinned by a swift stab, against the mud, and into which they sank, as i sustained/increased my pressure, again, until it was dead. time passed in the rhythm of the killing. i forgot where i was, i think. i can't remember anything but the coldness and the precision, and the nearness of terror. if killing things could be so easy, what prospects for a young man just finding his power. i killed many frogs that day...more

On Killing Animals | Big Red Frog Wallpaper

Creepiness Explored

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:44:20 +0000

The world is filled with a great diversity of living things. Many of them are so strange that they evoke in us a feeling of uneasiness. Sometimes, for reasons we cannot logically explain, they make our skin crawl. When such animals are small and vulnerable, we are at a loss to explain why the have such power over us. I have myself very often experienced such feelings of revulsion -- even horror -- at the sight of some creatures. In this blog, I will attempt to illuminate that quality possessed by certain insects and creepy things. I am hoping to gain power over them and the effect they have on me. Perhaps other "victims" of their own irrational psychology will benefit also. Jack Mardack