You never know that there is a bug that resembles an alien and has a very strong attack power that can single out sharks. But what is surprising is that its taste is comparable to lobster and king crab, which is very popular.
The first thing to know is that this is not an ordinary bug, but a deep-sea creature. Its full name is "Great King's Footworm". The insect can reach a length of 19 to 37 cm, is the size of a puppy, and is the largest arthropod in the world. You know, such a size is rare among deep-sea animals. Moreover, it also looks very beautiful, with various colors, such as pink, tan, and lilac.
The Great King's Foot is an isopod with a shell resembling scales on its back, many legs on its abdomen, and a pair of compound eyes made up of nearly 4,000 small flat eyes, which makes it look very much like an "alien". Although it belongs to crustaceans, it is closely related to terrestrial turtles, so it is classified as the largest insect.
Through fossil data, it was found that as early as 160 million years ago, the great king has existed, and now it is mainly distributed in the deep sea in Australia, Mexico, India and other places.
The Great King's Foot is a carnivorous animal that feeds mainly on the carcasses of marine life. But it is also for this reason that many people will ignore its aggressiveness when they first see it, but what you never expect is that it is a creature that dares to go head-to-head with sharks.
From this picture, a small shark can be seen being bitten by a beetle. They struggled and tumbled in the water, and the baby sharks tried to escape, but to no avail, the beetles did not let go of their mouths at all. In the end, the shark remained motionless and became the plate of the beetle, enough to see how terrible it was.
There are also scientists who have done an interesting experiment in the Gulf of Mexico, throwing a dead crocodile into the ocean floor to observe the life of the ocean. As a result, the Great King's Foot worms were the quickest to arrive, and they quickly surrounded the crocodile carcasses. As we all know, the crocodile skin is very hard, originally thought that the king of the foot worm in the face of such food will be a little difficult to deal with, did not expect, in a short while, it will bite the crocodile skin open, and some into the body of the crocodile to nibble. Before long, an intact crocodile was a pile of white bones.
Of course, in addition to their powerful attack power, they also have a certain defensive ability. In the event of danger, the Great King's Foot worm will also roll itself into a sphere, hiding its soft abdomen from danger, because it has a hard shell, so it can protect itself well.
It is precisely because the king has a foot worm that is aggressive, smart, and knows how to protect himself, so that he can have his own place in the deep sea.
Of course, animal carcasses are not found every day in the deep sea, so they have a survival mechanism exclusive to them. When there is enough food, the king has enough worms to eat wildly, as long as the stomach can hit down, it will try to fit, is a full "big stomach king". If they are hungry at times, they will also hunt some slow-moving creatures and even take the initiative to attack fishing nets.
So, what if there is really no food to eat?
In fact, we don't have to worry about it. This is because the king has the ability to tolerate hunger, which is absolutely beyond your imagination.
According to foreign media reports, a large king of the Toba water tribe in Japan died more than five years after a hunger strike, breaking the record for the highest length of animal hunger strike. And the strange thing is that no matter how the keeper feeds it, it refuses to take a bite of it, and even in order to prevent people from disturbing it, sometimes it will pretend to eat to make the keeper happy, but it does not swallow the food. So later, he was starved to death by himself. To this day, no one knows why it doesn't eat.
However, because the king's footworms are very delicious, they cannot escape the fate of being eaten.
However, because it lives in the deep sea and is particularly difficult to catch, it is not a target for commercial fishing. However, in mainland Taiwan and other places, there are many people who sell the king's foot worm, which once became a local specialty. In Japan, the king foot is also quite popular, and some people even make many king foot toys.
I really can't imagine that there are such magical little animals in the deep sea. So, what other special creatures do you know?