Oct 13, 2015 10:00 AM

Gallery: Absurd Creature of the Week Turns 100! Meet Our Favorites

Alamy
01
Bobbit worm, Eunice aphroditois, Sulawesi Indonesia.
What strikes so powerfully and quickly that it can chop fish in two? A worm, obviously---specifically the bobbit worm. Want to see it in action? [Of course you do](https://www.wired.com/2013/09/absurd-creature-of-the-week-bobbit-worm/).
Ram Gal
02
Brain-Sting-1-NEW
The incredible jewel wasp stings a cockroach in [two specific spots in the brain](https://www.wired.com/2014/02/absurd-creature-of-the-week-jewel-wasp/), zombifying it. Then the wasp drags the victim into a den and lays an egg and seals the two inside. When it hatches, the larva consumes the still-alive cockroach. So how's your day going?

Roberta Zimmerman, USDA APHIS
03
Giant African Land Snail
Florida is overrun with snails. That wouldn't be such a big deal if they weren't [a foot long](https://www.wired.com/2014/01/absurd-creature-of-the-week-foot-giant-african-land-snail/). And they eat the stucco off houses to build their shells. And they lay waste to agriculture and spread disease. Yeah, it's an issue.
age fotostock /Alamy
04
Spidey-01
There’s no mouth quite like a camel spider’s mouth. This arachnid’s (not technically a spider) giant chompers easily [tear its prey to pieces](https://www.wired.com/2015/10/absurd-creature-week-ferocious-arachnid-death-wrapped-mystery/). And unlike a spider, it has no venom, relying on brute force alone to overwhelm its prey, including rodents.

Matthew R. Gilligan
05
snapper-NEW
There's a crustacean out there, an isopod, that invades a fish's mouth, eats the tongue, and [takes its place](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/absurd-creature-of-the-week-the-parasite-that-eats-and-replaces-a-fishs-tongue/). And for good measure, it mates with other isopods while it's in there. So again, how's your day going?
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33590535@N06/3125601642" target="_blank">Drew Avery</a> | <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>
06
3125601642-e8383af088-o-NEW
No PR is quite as bad as eating kittens. But the [three-foot-wide, nine-pound coconut crab](https://www.wired.com/2013/12/absurd-creature-of-the-week-2/) doesn't give a hoot. It's so powerful it can tear through coconuts (when it's not assaulting cats).

Henrik Glenner
07
IMG-308091-NEW
Not all crabs have it so easy though. There are, for instance, parasitic barnacles that invade crab bodies and sterilize them in what can only be described as a [not OK way](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/absurd-creature-of-the-week-rhizocephalan/). The barnacles (the yellow bit on the abdomen here) even trick the crabs into grooming their eggs.
George Burgess
08
cookiecutter-NEW
One of my favorite interviews was with the first human confirmed to haven fallen victim to the cookiecutter shark, which [excavates plugs of flesh](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/absurd-creature-of-the-week-cookiecutter-shark/) with teeth like a white picket fence of pain. The guy had been swimming between Hawaiian islands when the shark struck. Also, he went back and did it again when he healed up.

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Kate Knibbs

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Paresh Dave

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Joel Khalili

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Stephanie Pearson

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Miles Klee

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Luke Larsen

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Jeremy White

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Miles Klee

Mammotion’s Spino E1 Pool Cleaner Isn’t Bad for the Price—It's Just Not That Good

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Christopher Null

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Matthew Korfhage