World Weirdest Creatures Series

Welcome to the first series of World Weirdest Creatures. There are so many creatures you never knew existed, talk more of how they survive. In this series you will get to see their looks, their predatory or defensive attributes, how they mate or how some creatures get to change sex organs during harsh times and other weird stuff. We will be looking at 7 of these creatures today. Happy reading

1. Praying Mantis

A Praying Mantis

The praying mantis is so weird that ancient Greeks believed it had supernatural powers, naming it "mantis" which means "prophet" or "seer." The carnivorous insect preys exclusively on living insects, seizing and gripping its prey with its front legs. The insect's colour provides good camouflage as it blends in the background of green plants. During mating, the female often eats the male, first by biting its head off. As the dying male spasms, it often increases the amount of sperm delivered. Then, the female will eat the male's carcass, which provides her with additional nourishment that she can use when she lays her eggs... up to 200 of them.

2. Shaggy Frogfish

Shaggy Frogfish

Instead of chasing their prey, frogfishes have become the masters of the ambush. Often patterned to blend with their surroundings, frogfishes lay quietly in waiting, enticing their prey with a "fishing pole" tipped with a piece of "bait" derived from the first dorsal fin spine. Without any teeth, they must use the "gape and suck" method to swallow their prey whole—dropping open their jaw to create a void of negative pressure. In this manner, frogfishes consume their prey faster than any other vertebrates, inhaling their food in 6 milliseconds.

3. Black Widow Spider

Black Widow Spider

The black widow, sits in her web and waits for food to come to her. She has eight eyes, but barely uses them, perceiving much of her world through her hairy legs—she finds her prey mainly by sensing vibrations along her web. Then she charges blindly across her high-wire grid. First she bites, the neurotoxins in her bite paralyzing the struggling moth. Digestive enzymes turn its insides into goo. Then she wraps it up. Her back legs pull silk from her spinneret and encase the moth, keeping the spider out of harm's way, and if she’s already eaten, preserving the snack for later. Once she's hungry, the spider sucks up the insides of her buggy snack like a liquid lunch. Just like the Praying Mantis, the male counterparts aren’t that lucky when it comes to mating. Immediately after releasing his sperm, he could end up in the Widow’s stomach, of course, as liquid form.

4. Polyclad Flatworm

Polyclad Flatworm

Flatworms are basically hermaphroditic, have both male and female sex organs. But when it comes to procreating, they have to decide who plays which roles - a fight that can sometimes be to the death. Flatworm sex consists of the two attempting to stab their lover with their pointed penis so as to inseminate the other - an act that is referred to as "penis-fencing."

5. Flounder

Flounder

When born, a Flounder is bilaterally symmetrical, with one eye on each side of its head - just as a normal fish. However, after a few days one of the eyes begins to migrate to meet with the other eye on the other side of its head as the fish begins to lean heavily to the other side - that is the side where there is no eye. An adult flounder lives along the bottom of the sea, with the "eyed side" facing up. Its underside equally loses its colour.

6. Horned Lizard

Horned Lizard

The horned lizard is also, sometimes, referred to as the horned frog or the horny toad, but it's no amphibian. Found in the western deserts of North America, this lizard is a one-reptile wrecking crew with a bizarre self-defense strategy. It can actually squirt blood from its thin blood vessels around its eyes on to an attacker. This blood contains canine repellent chemicals, as well as, looks disgusting to the attacker.

7. Sea Hare

Sea Hare

Named for the rabbit-ear-shaped growths on its head, which are actually its nose, the sea hare is the swinger of the sea slug world. Sea hares are hermaphrodites, with both male and female sex organs. To reproduce, the first sea hare acts solely as a female, and is mounted by a second sea hare... who acts as a male to the first and female to a third... and so on down the line, to the last hare, who acts only as a male. A pregnant sea hare will lay spaghetti-like strands of millions of eggs, anchored to the kelp beds for safety.

Source: National Geographic