
The Stuff Of Nightmares, Lembeh Strait – image © Chris Mitchell
The Bobbitt worm looks like something you’d never want to meet, especially on a night dive. But they’re a star attraction in Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait. This ambush predator buries itself vertically in the sand and then explodes upwards with lightning speed to catch its prey with its scissor-like jaws. Thankfully bobbitt worms are only a few inches wide – although they can be over a metre in length – and pose little danger to divers who keep their fingers – and everything else – to themselves. While it’s scientifically known as Eunice Aphroditois, its popular name comes from the infamous 1993 incident which made international headlines when Lorena Bobbitt cut off her adulterous sleeping husband’s penis with a knife. (Not a sentence I imagine you were expecting to read on a diving website). (Lembeh Strait, 2011)