Well, a friend of mine sent me this picture of an creepy insect. I'm wondering if the picture is photoshoped or if it is real. It is said the insect lives in Indonesia, but I'm not sure.
Can anyone identify this? Thanks.
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1 Answer
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This is a Creatonotos gangis
This nice arctiine moth was described by Linnaeus in 1763. The species lives in South East Asia and parts of Australia.
C. gangis went viral earlier this year because of a post in The independent where they wrote about a facebook video on the species... I don't know if this is the same video that was popular at facebook, but take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1ms8qfqzM
Furthermore, I can tell you that those weird tentacles are in fact scent organs which secrete pheromones in order to attract sexual mates. And also, their larvae cause huge problems because they eat pomegranade leaves
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$\begingroup$ Oh thanks, it is so freaky I thought it was a fake picture. $\endgroup$– esQmo_Oct 25, 2017 at 18:13
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1$\begingroup$ @Thai If I am not mistaken, these scent organs are called coremata (aka. Hair-pencils) $\endgroup$– Remi.bOct 26, 2017 at 1:35