# What sort of worm-ish creature was this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731 "2012-04-23T19:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/1 "2012-04-23T19:06:51Z")
Sorry, I didn’t get a picture. Yesterday I saw something strange - hanging from a string of I suppose silk (from an eave) was a long thin worm-looking creature, gyrating its front end around a bit. I assumed it was something making a chrysalis for itself, except that (and it was quite a bit above me, so hard to tell) it seemed very like a slug. Its front end was sluglike in that bifurcated way. It was perhaps a bit shorter than my index finger but quite slender, and didn’t appear to be furry. It was dark in color. Then suddenly it fell down, but we couldn’t find it in the grass to get a better look at it. This was in South Carolina. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/2 "2012-04-23T23:50:08Z")
I don’t know what it was, but I have to include a link to the weirdest damn [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVi4Z6CjZk) of slugs hanging from a string of mucus. So, fucking slugs maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/3 "2012-04-24T00:01:23Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > So, fucking slugs maybe? That would be my guess. It was slug that had just finished fucking and was enjoying a post-coital cigarette, metaphorically. ---
**Author:** ![secretsmile36](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@secretsmile36](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/secretsmile36)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/4 "2012-04-24T00:08:43Z")
I saw the same kind of creature was I was a young kid and I still don’t know what it was. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/5 "2012-04-24T06:37:59Z")
Slugs do perform mucus bungee sex, but the OPs description also possibly fits some kind of caterpillar - many species drop and hang from silken threads to evade predators - and there are caterpillars that have false antennae or whips that give them a slug-like appearance. Not familiar with the OPs local fauna though, so I can’t propose any candidate species. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/6 "2012-04-24T13:24:38Z")
It didn’t seem to have any legs, either, by the way. (For added weirdness, this was when I was washing windows on the gorilla side of the gorilla enclosure at the zoo. I don’t believe it was gorilla related, though.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/7 "2012-04-24T13:27:48Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It didn’t seem to have any legs, either, by the way. (For added weirdness, this was when I was washing windows on the gorilla side of the gorilla enclosure at the zoo. I don’t believe it was gorilla related, though.) Isn’t the gorilla side primarily (or exclusively) for gorillas? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/8 "2012-04-24T14:13:38Z")
Well, and evidently worms hanging from the roof. And rabbits live in there, on their own recognizance. The occasional squirrel. And zoo volunteers when we’re cleaning the windows. (The gorillas are still in their backups when we do that.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/9 "2012-04-24T14:41:40Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > (The gorillas are still in their backups when we do that.) Oh. Where’s the element of risk, then? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-worm-ish-creature-was-this/619731/10 "2012-04-24T14:59:23Z")
Well, an aerial slug can still fall on you, evidently. We do go in the exhibits with less dangerous animals. I’ve been peed on by lemurs and monkeys.