What's the weirdest thing you've seen all day? I bet this tops it! This post may be a little out of order chronologically, but we're hoping to find some more information about this thing we found. This winter we've been walking in the woods; in January I wrote about our New Year's Day walk in a preserve near Fremont, Indiana. Part of the reason we went out is to just be in nature, but another reason is because we were trying to catch glimpses of different "overwintering" creatures in their natural habitat.
On February 16th, we went for another one of those walks, again at the same preserve in Indiana. We looked at the bark of various trees (for hibernating moths, etc.), but didn't find much. We did find some strange-looking cocoons, but weren't sure if they were inhabited or not. It was pretty brisk, and the wind was whipping up, so we had just decided to call it a day when eagle-eyed Beau noticed something quite interesting on the ground.
This is what it looked like:
It was definitely alive. It was partly translucent, and could actually move directly across the snow. It seemed to be hairless and was covered with a sticky substance similar to a snail. It had at least six sets of legs. On the front of its head were two blackish spots that sat atop the skin, and we assumed that they were some kind of eyes. It had a stiff spiny-thing on its opposite end. We watched for quite a while to see if it was frass, but it appeared to be a part of its body. You can click on the top picture for a closer look. If anyone is interested, I also have video of it moving around.
We have just never seen anything like this before, and we checked around our usual places online and didn't find much information. If anyone has any ideas, we'd love to hear 'em! What is this weird thing?
As a side note, we also found spiders moving freely across the snow. This is one we found that day, but since then, we've found several more, and they were very different from each other.
Weird enough? It's intriguing to see cold-blooded creatures like this moving across the snow without freezing or even slowing down. My fingers were getting stiff just holding the camera and taking pictures. How do they do it?
On February 16th, we went for another one of those walks, again at the same preserve in Indiana. We looked at the bark of various trees (for hibernating moths, etc.), but didn't find much. We did find some strange-looking cocoons, but weren't sure if they were inhabited or not. It was pretty brisk, and the wind was whipping up, so we had just decided to call it a day when eagle-eyed Beau noticed something quite interesting on the ground.
This is what it looked like:
It was definitely alive. It was partly translucent, and could actually move directly across the snow. It seemed to be hairless and was covered with a sticky substance similar to a snail. It had at least six sets of legs. On the front of its head were two blackish spots that sat atop the skin, and we assumed that they were some kind of eyes. It had a stiff spiny-thing on its opposite end. We watched for quite a while to see if it was frass, but it appeared to be a part of its body. You can click on the top picture for a closer look. If anyone is interested, I also have video of it moving around.
We have just never seen anything like this before, and we checked around our usual places online and didn't find much information. If anyone has any ideas, we'd love to hear 'em! What is this weird thing?
As a side note, we also found spiders moving freely across the snow. This is one we found that day, but since then, we've found several more, and they were very different from each other.
Weird enough? It's intriguing to see cold-blooded creatures like this moving across the snow without freezing or even slowing down. My fingers were getting stiff just holding the camera and taking pictures. How do they do it?
Could be one of the dreaded Tequila worms - could explain how he was still alive in the cold!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen anything like that either. I hope you find out and let us know!! :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE your header! Very pretty.
Yep, BG, that must be it. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Julie! Hope you're enjoying your last few days in Germany. I really appreciate the peek into your world.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell Tony you liked his picture!