Video Of Strange Worm Spitting Out Tree Root-like Web To Catch Prey Terrifies The Internet

Nature can come in all shapes and sizes. From the small and intriguing to the big and scary, there’s hardly a page left unturned when it comes to nature. However, a video capturing a lesser-known worm has people stopping in their tracks.

Footage Of Strange Worm Shooting Tree Root-like Web Goes Viral

In the clip, a man has a red worm in the palm of his hand. The worm moves around in his palm and secretes a web that oddly resembles tree roots. The man surprisingly has little to no reaction to the unsettling web that seems like something an alien might release onto humans. The video has reached social media with it grabbing seats on Twitter and YouTube. 

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People were reminded of alien creatures from movies after watching the video. Some even compared it to something you would see in a Star Trek movie. While others wanted it nuked out of orbit.

Well, even with its terrifying appearance, the worm is in fact not an alien intruder but simply a worm that has existed on this planet for a long time. The worm is part of the ‘Nemertea’ phylum and is also known as the ribbon worm in layman's terms.

Scientists have identified over a thousand species of worms on Earth and this ribbon worm that shoots tree root-like webs is also part of those thousands. The white web that has people running for their bunkers is known as ‘proboscis’. The ribbon worm uses the tree root-like web to capture its prey which is mostly molluscs and snails. It then uses the root web to drag the captured creature into its mouth and eat them.

The Tree-Like Web Is Used By The Worm To Fend Off Predators

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The web is also used by the creature to fend off any potential threats. The ribbon worm shoots its web in case a predator gets too close to it, just like it was demonstrated in the video. 

Check out the video below:

Biologist and Nemertea specialist Sebastian Kvist spoke to Mental Floss in 2015 and explained that the worm’s behaviour is such because it is under immense pressure, “What we're seeing is a very stressed worm that's doing everything it can to try to get away from the situation that it's in.”

Its hydrostatic skeleton makes it so that the creature can fall apart without the pressure of the water around it. However, falling apart does not necessarily mean it dies. Kvist noted, “We're not sure if it's able to regenerate or not, but it doesn't seem to be fatal to the worm to break like that—which is really interesting.”

This also means that the worms leave no fossil record which makes it extremely hard for humans to know much of anything about them.

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