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Horrifying Hunters

You wake up in the middle of the night. You can't breathe. Your pulse is racing. Has Freddy Krueger from Elm Street invaded your nightmare with his long, metal fingernails? Or have you been spooked by dreams of a sponge that buries its prey alive; a blind fish that sucks the guts out of its dead prey; or a spider that fishes for its food, then drags its flopping victim back to its hide-out? Eeek!

If there were a Freddy Krueger Special Award for Horrifying Hunting, these critters would be in the running.

Carnivorous Sponge
The sponge — the living kind, not the type with which you scrub dishes — is one of the ocean's more gentle creatures. But it has a meat-eating cousin. The carnivorous sponge lives in dark Mediterranean caves, where stagnant water makes filter-feeding impossible. Instead, these sponges have developed tentacles covered with microscopic, Velcro-like hooks. These hooks snag shrimp-like crustaceans that swim by. Within 24 hours, the sponge's tentacles envelop the prey, trapping the poor sap and burying it alive. Then the digestive process begins. The horror. The horror.
Don't be afraid. Get a closer look. >>

Hagfish
True to its name, the hagfish has a rather unattractive habit — sucking the guts out of dead and dying fish. Using tooth-like plates on its tongue and a single tooth in its mouth, the hagfish bores into its prey's body and eats away all of the animal's flesh and intestines. It leaves only bones. Hagfish resemble eels with their long, slender pink bodies. They are nearly blind, but have a keen sense of touch and smell that they use to find prey.
Don't be afraid. Get a closer look. >>

Fishing Spider
Unlike most spiders, the fishing spider doesn't spin a web. Instead, it fishes for tadpoles and small fish by vibrating a leg in the water. When a curious fish swims up, the fishing spider submerges itself just below the water's surface, grabs the prey in its jaws and drags it to the surface to eat. Fishing spiders, among the largest spiders in the eastern United States, can run on the water's surface and even dive. Several species of fishing spider are found in and around streams, ponds and lakes in North America and Canada.
Don't be afraid. Get a closer look. >>

Pictures: Paris Claude/Corbis | Brandon D. Cole/Corbis | Joe McDonald/Corbis |
Written by Amy E. Nevala

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