7 Horrifying Micro-Monsters That Will Haunt Your Dreams

trumpman (72)in #sciencepic • 7 years ago (edited)

My friend @iliasdiamantis commented on my yesterday's post that "I am growing soft" with my posts. Apparently, he has a liking for the scary & disgusting ones, so what I have for you today is 7 creepy tiny monstrosities just to prove him wrong.

Enjoy:

1. Hydrothermal worm

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The monster depicted above, which reminds me the sandworms from Dune, is a hydrothermal worm and has about the size of a bacterium. I know it looks pretty scary but there is no reason to worry!

These guys live exclusively in deep sea hydrothermal vents so your chances of encountering one are slim to none!

Unfortunately I couldn't find much info about the exact species (or genus) it belongs. Please leave a comment if you can help me identify it!

2. Bluebottle Fly Larva

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I would have never imagined that the maggot of the bluebottle fly (Protophormia terraenovae) would like so scary! Those fangs look really sharp, don't you agree?

Fun Fact: The maggots of this fly are the ones most commonly used in maggot therapy, a type of biotherapy involving the introduction of live, disinfected maggots for cleaning out necrotic tissue.

3. House Dust Mite

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After seeing this image I did some googling. Apparently, I am not the only one thinking house dust mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) look like the head crabs from half life!

Does this guy creep you out? If yes, then I guess I shouldn't tell you there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of them on your bed feeding on your dead skin cells! Don't worry though, they are totally harmless although they do cause allergies to some people. Changing your bed sheets will help a bit, but still these creatures live in every home, no matter how clean.

4. Flour Mite

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This creeper is a flour mite, scientifically described as Acarus siro , a pest of stored grains that grows to be about 0.3 to 0.6 mm long.

Fun Fact: These guys are intentionally introduced to add flavor to mimolette cheese and this is why they are also known as "cheese mites".

5. Worm Polychaete

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This one is definitely the most alien-like creature in this compilation. Unfortunately the picture doesn't come with much info, other than it is a "polychaete worm".

This is a very diverse group of animals, so again, please leave a comment if you can help identify this critter!

6# Human Head Louse (and egg)

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A creature you probably already know, the head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis), an obligate ectoparasite of humans that causes head lice infestation.

Fun Fact: Did you know that a standard home hair drier can kill approximately 97% of eggs & lice with proper technique?

7. Tardigrade

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The last creature for today is a Tardigrade, of the species Paramacrobiotus craterlak. To be honest, I don't think this little guy is creepy, I actually find him kinda cute in a weird way! But I definitely had to include it as these microanimals are like super amazing!

Why? Because they are almost impossible to kill:

" Tardigrades are one of the most resilient animals known. Individual species of tardigrades can survive extreme conditions that would be rapidly fatal to nearly all other known life forms, including complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, or a large meteorite impacts.

Some tardigrades can withstand temperatures down to 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero) while others can withstand 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for several minutes, pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human, and the vacuum of outer space.

They can go without food or water for more than 30 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce. Tardigrades, living in harsh conditions, undergo an annual process of cyclomorphosis." [source]

The End

This is it with the weirders for today! I really hope they will give you some nightmares in the days to come! Here are some more strange animals if you didn't have enough:

Note

All photos above taken with the help of a scanning electron microscope and are artificially colored since electron microscopes do not produce colored images.

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