Gallery: Absurd Creature of the Week Turns 100! Meet Our Favorites
Alamy01Bobbit 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 Gal02Brain-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 APHIS03Giant 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 /Alamy04Spidey-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. Gilligan05snapper-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>063125601642-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 Glenner07IMG-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 Burgess08cookiecutter-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.
