This creature may look like an alien from a sci-fi movie – but, terrifyingly, it’s completely real.
This footage was originally posted to social media, and has becone a talking point for many users on Reddit and Facebook after being viewed millions of times.
It looks like it’s part centipede. Part caterpillar. Part moth.
It’s the moth part that counts.
Locally, the creature is said to live in parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
It is defind by its white, black, red and yellow coloured body, which also features tentacle-like-legs. But all of those appendages have a purpose.
Known as coremata, (or hair-pencils) they are scent organs used to produce pheromones to attract a mate.
The males have four eversible coremata at the tip of the abdomen which emit pheromones, each when inflated is longer than the abdomen.
The moths have a wingspan of about four centimetres.
Facebook user Gandik shared footage of the insect after he saw it in Indonesia.
One of many people reacted to the footage, saying: “I would literally burn the house down if I saw this.”
Another wrote: “I’m usually not creeped out by bugs but, ugh I wouldn’t touch that.”
