A motorist from South Carolina was terrified when he discovered that he had a nervous "passenger" in the form of a rather strange-looking beetle. Tommy Hortman noticed the strange creature when he returned to his parked truck and noticed a creepy-looking insect crawling near the window.
"He looked like a stranger from the movie," the stunned driver recalled, "like a cross between a squid and a lobster."
As is usually the case when confronted with something strange in our modern times, Hortman quickly pulled out his phone to film an "alien" intruder who had six legs and a furry body.
He subsequently posted the footage online in hopes of identifying the creature, and the etymologist who saw his video was able to come up with an answer. According to Eric Day of Virginia Tech, Hortman encountered a hag moth, specifically the creature's larvae known as the monkey slug.
He also pointed out that Hortman was lucky that he simply removed the beetle rather than attempting to pick it up, as the insect boasts a stinging ability that can leave a "nasty and uncomfortable" reddish rash on people's skin.
"I wouldn't get close to him if I could have avoided it," said an insect expert of the monkey slug.
