
An insect with weird tentacles protruding out of its abdomen has taken the Internet by storm today, but it's actually just a harmless moth.
An absolutely frightening looking insect in India with giant tentacles sticking out of its abdomen became the star of the Internet this week, but don’t worry, this isn’t some alien here to take over the world. The insect first blew up after video was posted on Facebook and quickly spread like wildfire across social media. The video is embedded at the bottom of this post.
It’s actually a Creatonotos gangis moth, which is a species of moth found in southeast Asia and Australia. The “tentacles” are totally harmless, and are actually scent organs that produce pheromones to attract a mate. It’s a decent-sized insect, with a wingspan of about four centimeters.
So if you see one, there’s no need to freak out. It’s just yet another reason to admire the incredible beauty that surrounds us every day, even when that beauty is slightly horrifying.
“Creatonotos gangis is a species of arctiine moth found in South East Asia and Australia,” reads a Wikipedia excerpt. “It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 Centuria Insectorum. Adults have white hindwings and brown forewings, each with a dark streak, and a wingspan of 40 millimetres (1.6 in). The abdomen is red or, more rarely, yellow. Males have four large eversible coremata (scent organs), which can exceed the length of the abdomen when inflated.”
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