Its not just ghosts and goblins that will give you a scare this Halloween - the animal kingdom puts on quite a horrifying show. New Scientist picks our fright-night favourites from the gross to the downright gory, zombie cockroaches brought back from the dead to a lizard that squirts tears of blood. And you thought your Halloween costume was scary.
Which creature chills your bones the most? Vote for your favourite horror species in our Facebook poll.
Vampire fish show their teeth
A tinier and more voracious version of the candiru - the parasitic fish famous for finding its way into the orifices of unsuspecting bathers - has been discovered in Brazil. The fish, which does not yet have a name, seems to feed exclusively on the blood of its victims.
Read more
(Image: Max Gibbs/Oxford Scientific/Getty)
Heat-seeking vampire bats have a trick in their pits
Vampire bats use heat detection to seek out their next meal, and the way they do it provides the latest evidence that they are more closely related to the cattle whose blood they suck than the rodents they resemble.
Read more
(Image: Oxford Scientific/Getty)
'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws
Hairy frogs from the Cameroon have revealed a remarkable mechanism that causes thorn-like claws to burst through the skin when it is threatened. Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads.
Read more
(Image: Gustavocarra)
NOTE: In 2008 I made a thread on this story.
Horror fly returns from the dead
The bone skipper, which feeds on rotten flesh and was the first fly to be declared extinct because of human activity, made a surprise comeback last year after having not been seen for more than 160 years. The fly is active only during the winter months and reportedly emits a luminous glow from its large, orange head.
Read more
(Image: Daniel Martín-Vega)
NOTE: In 2010 I made a thread on this story.
Keep freeloaders happy with rotting corpses
Pretty name, not-so-pretty domestic arrangements. The golden orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes has the unpleasant habit of weaving rotting insect carcasses into its web. What possesses it? The gruesome behaviour isn't unique: many spiders add cadavers to their web designs. Some studies suggest the whiff of rotting carrion is designed to lure insects to their doom, whereas others conclude that the corpses ward off predators.
Read more
(Image: Victor Patel)
Virus gene engineer sends caterpillars to a sticky end
It takes just one gene to rule them all. With that gene, a voodoo virus compels its caterpillar hosts to emerge from their shady hideaways, climb en masse to the tops of trees, deliquesce and fall as a rosy rain of viral particles on their fellow healthy caterpillars. Soon, they too will make the climb of doom. The virus is known as baculovirus and its unsuspecting host the gypsy moth caterpillar.
Read more
(Image: Joke Stuurman-Huitema/Foto Natura/Minden/Getty)
World's nicest bird murders chicks
Newly hatched greater honeyguide chicks emerge into pitch darkness, inside a tunnel dug by another bird where their mother has left them. They will soon be joined by the host bird's own chicks when they hatch. If this was a slasher movie, now would be the time to cover your eyes. The young honeyguide kills the other chicks within an hour. All this from a bird that as an adult helpfully guides humans to bees' nests, which the humans then raid for honey.
Read more
(Image: Claire Spottiswoode)
NOTE: I made a thread on this a bit over a month ago
Mummy, can I have some more carrion soup?
Squeamish readers might want to look away: this is a tale of decaying corpses, regurgitation and feasting on putrefaction. It is also an account of some excellent parenting skills. We've all seen baby birds begging their parents for food. The larvae of the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides do it too, only their diet is well, slightly different.
Read more
(Image: Per Terje Smiseth)
Slime killer hagfish feasts in rotten flesh
Imagine you're a humble little red bandfish. One day, minding your own business, you suddenly find yourself drenched in sticky mucus. You can't breathe, because it has clogged your gills. Your enemy is a hagfish. After you're dead it will drag you out of your burrow and devour you. But it's unlikely anyone will try to devour it in turn, because that slime it used to kill you also protects it from predators. Besides, why would anyone want to eat a creature that regularly eats decaying corpses from the inside out?
Read more
(Image: Zintzen et al., Scientific Reports)
Zombie cockroaches revived by brain shot
There is a cure for zombies after all - if you are a cockroach. A study has shown that cockroaches that turned into "zombies" after being stung by a parasitic wasp can be revived by injecting them with neurotransmitters. Cockroaches can lose their ability to walk when stung by jewel wasps (Ampulex compressa) - the females of which use the cockroaches to feed their young.
Read more
(Image: Rosenberg, et al., Journal of Experimental Biology)
Chemical warfare, insect style
Chemical warfare is frowned upon in most human societies, but to animals it's routine. Bombardier beetles have glands in their abdomens which can shoot rapid-fire pulses of hot caustic liquid. Each gland has two chambers, one containing a mixture of hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide, the other various enzymes. When the two are mixed, a series of explosive reactions occur, including the conversion of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. These reactions heat the mixture to boiling point and blast it out of the beetle's backside with an audible pop.
Read more
(Image: Satoshi Kuribayashi/Nature Production/OSF/Photolibrary)/Getty)
Horror lizard squirts tears of blood
Around 7 centimetres long, the beast looks like a small armoured dinosaur that has been put in a trouser press. Its body is flattened to the ground, helping to disguise it, as does its mottled skin. Spines run down the side of the body and tail, and sprout all over the head including two large ones on the top that look like horns. The lizard can also defend itself from predators by squirting a jet of blood out of its eyes. This rather extreme weapon confuses the predator and allows the lizard to escape.
Read more
(Image: Raymond Mendez/AnimalsAnimals/OSF/Photolibrary)
NOTE: I made a thread on this at the time
Gallery Here
