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Half-Squid, Half-Octopus Discovered Off of Hawaii
Otter writes "A unique creature that's been dubbed an 'octosquid' with eight arms and a squid-like mantle, was discovered off Hawaii. The creature, of a previously unknown species, was trapped in the net covering a 3,000 foot-deep intake tube for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. From the article: 'The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days. According to War, the lab usually checks its filters once a month, but this time, it put a plankton net in one of the filters and checked it two weeks later. The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and drifted to the bottom.'"
Captain Beefheart could not be reached for comment.
Here's another article with a more close-up photo. Does anybody else hear a slithering voice saying "The Stars Are Right" when you look into its ever-so-hypnotic eye?
TFA fails to explain a curious trait of deep-sea beasties like this. They're red because in very low light conditions, red appears black - good camouflage in an inky abyss. Red pigment is much easier for creatures to synthesize than black.
A deathly fear of squid and octopus?
Well, I hate to mention this, but if you're serious, don't look up Vampyroteuthis infernalis . Like this one from Hawaii, which looks somewhat similar, it is a deep red color and lives in the deep sea. Vampyroteuthis is also known as the "vampire squid", it shares traits of both squid and octopods (another similarity), and its body is (wait for it) described as having "the consistency of a jellyfish". So, it sounds rather close to the "jellysquidfishapus" you imagine in your nightmares. Sorry. It looks like it exists already. If it's any consolation, it's small (max. 13cm long).
Arms and tentacles are technically different things. An Octopus has 8 "arms." A squid has 8 "arms" + 2 "tentacles" (longer than arms) for a total of 10 appendages. This speciment was found with only 8 arms, like an octopus (instead of the 8 arms + 2 tentacles arrangement of most sqiuds), but with the mantel of a squid (which octopi lack).
So arms and tentacles are not interchangeble references.
I found all this from a simple google of the differnces between squids and octopi. You might want to do the same before attempting to correct your fellow slashdotters with mistaken information.
http://files.myopera.com/DotEd/blog/DSC00210.JPG
I grew up in NoVA myself. What you saw were probably cave crickets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_cricket
They love drainpipes, sheds and dark basements. They are quite spider-like and get rather big and nasty looking. But there's no way they wove webs - those were probably left by nursery-web spiders, or something else of similar size and morphology to those cave crickets.
Could be worse though. Thankfully, you'll never see ones like these in your mom's basement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider
Sorry, Squidward only has 6 legs (4 legs and 2 arms really).
I'm ashamed that I know that.