From colorful, glossy eggs to creepy dark pods, here are 11 of the weirdest eggs in
the animal kingdom!!
11.)
Octopus Eggs There are almost 300 different species of
octopus.
Octopi are very fascinating creatures!
They have three hearts, blue blood, and because they are boneless, they can squeeze into tight
spaces.
They are named after their 8 arms covered with suction cups and just like their odd
features, they also lay some of the weirdest eggs on the planet!
Octopi are known to have short lifespans, and depending on their size, they can live
about six months to five years, with the bigger species living longer.
The reason is because no matter what species they are, soon after mating, they die.
The males will wander off right after mating to die, and the females go about laying up
to 400,000 eggs.
The mother will group the eggs into clusters, stringing them along so they stay together.
The eggs have brown spots and two darker spots in a transparent coating.
While she is caring for the eggs, the mother completely stops eating and makes her eggs
her number one priority.
She is in charge of everything from giving them oxygen by filtering the water to protecting
them from predators.
After her eggs hatch, her body turns against her and she dies.
Out of all of those 400,000 eggs, very few will actually make it to adulthood.
Biologists in Monterey Bay, California were able to witness a mother octopus take care
of her brood for 53 months which is the longest known of any animal.
10.)
Tiger Swallowtail Eggs The tiger swallowtail is a species of butterfly
mostly found in eastern North America and is one of the most familiar butterflies in
the United States.
I used to go out into my backyard with a butterfly net and catch them so I could look at them
more closely.
But don’t worry, I always let them go, I didn’t pin them down with a needle or anything!
When the Tiger Swallowtail lays her eggs, she never lays them in groups, but will often
lay them one at a time on the upper part of leaves from wild cherry, tulip trees, white
ash or sweet bays so the caterpillars will be near food sources.
They are the tiniest little things ever and she also only lays about 2 to 3 of them during
the season.
They look like extremely tiny little dots on leaves and you probably would not know
what they were even if you actually saw one.
If you look hard and know what you are looking for, then you might be able to find one.
At first these eggs are green but will quickly turn to a greenish-yellow and they tend to
resemble a pear.
These eggs usually take about a week to week and a half to hatch.
Once they hatch, they become a cute little caterpillar for a few weeks.
You can buy them online for fun and educational purposes!
9.)
Shark Eggs While the color of many shark eggs may look
a little different, the majority of them are usually a similar strange shape.
When you look at a picture of them you might be reminded of a some sort of creepy CIA/dark
force device.
These eggs are often known as a mermaid’s purse or even the devil’s purse.
Mermaid’s purse sounds better!
These consist of an egg case in a thin capsule made of collagen.
They are often square or rectangular with stringy or pointy corner horns.
However, there are other rather unusual shapes of shark eggs.
For instance, the Bullhead Shark’s eggs are often dark black, spiky spirals.
You can find these eggs washed up onshore because they are very lightweight.
They are generally found at the furthest point of a high tide.
8.)
Tinamou Eggs The great Tinamou is a small turkey-like bird
that many say have some of the prettiest eggs in the world!
For the longest time no one knew what they actually were!
Tinamou eggs were a huge mystery as to how they were so glossy, shiny, and colorful.
A Tinamou female lays several eggs which are incubated by the male, while the female goes
off to seek another mate.
Females tend to lay an egg on a specific schedule, depending on its size.
These eggs are laid in nests, and more than one female can lay her egg in the same nest,
meaning that there might be a dozen eggs at one time.
The eggs look almost like Easter candy, and tend to slightly change color, depending on
which angle you look at them from.
The colors also become duller and darker as time grows closer to hatching.
The colors vary by the type of bird and range from purple to green to turquoise to steel
grey.
There can also be white eggs but this color is pretty rare for this kind of bird with
the fanciest eggs!
I don’t know, I kind of like robin’s eggs myself!
7.)
Frog Eggs Frog eggs are often called frogspawn.
Frogs mate in the water and their eggs are often found on water surfaces.
These eggs are grouped in large, round clusters known as frog masses.
Did you know that frogs can lay up to 4,000 eggs at one time?!
The embryos in frogs' eggs appear like black spots in the middle of transparent gel-like
globules.
The gel provides support and protection while allowing the passage of oxygen, carbon dioxide
and ammonia.
It absorbs moisture and swells on contact with water.
The black color helps them hatch faster by absorbing more heat from the sun.
The shape and size of the egg depends on the species of the frog.
It only takes a few days for the frog eggs to hatch little tadpoles and they will continue
to live in the water for a few weeks.
Did you guys ever get a Grow-a-Frog as a kid?
Remember, you would send in for it in the mail and they would send you a tadpole?
I got a frog and had it for years, I think my friend still has that thing!
6.)
Ladybug Eggs A ladybug is known to mate and lay her eggs
as close to a colony of aphids as possible.
Aphids are insects known as plant lice and ladybugs will munch on them all day long!
The ladybug will lay anywhere from 10 to 50 clusters of eggs.
Between spring and summer, a single ladybug can produce about 1,000 eggs total.
These eggs are often usually yellow, oval shaped, and very small.
The ladybug will deposit her eggs in neat little clusters on the underside of leaves
with enough suitable prey for her offspring to eat when they hatch.
The larvae will start eating immediately!
It takes about three to five days for the eggs to hatch.
Some eggs won’t hatch so if there aren’t enough aphids or other food for the newly
hatched ladybugs to eat, they will eat the eggs that didn’t make it.
The larva is kind of ugly, but then it turns into a beautiful ladybug.
Kind of like the ugly duckling.
5.)
Seahorse Eggs Seahorses are pretty fascinating oddities
of the animal kingdom.
These are the only animals where the males produce the sperm, but they are also the ones
that get pregnant.
The male seahorse has a pouch on his front abdomen.
During mating, the female can lay up to 1,500 eggs inside the male’s pouch.
The male then releases the sperm to fertilise the eggs as they enter.
Once all the eggs are inserted, the male goes to a nearby coral or seaweed and grabs on
with his tail to wait out gestation.
The eggs are safe in the pouch as they receive everything they need from food to oxygen.
He will then carry the eggs around for about 9 to 45 days like a mama kangaroo until the
embryos hatch.
The seahorses emerge fully developed, but very small.
So cute!
It is believed that contractions while giving birth can last as long as 12 hours for seahorses.
The little babies are released into the water and will often form groups, holding on to
each other with their tails.
4.)
Green Lacewing Eggs Lacewings are voracious predators of the eggs
of many soft bodied pests and are often used as natural pest control.
Fun fact: A green lacewing can eat as many as 60 aphids in an hour!
So just in case you need some, you can buy their eggs online and get weekly shipments!
Lacewing eggs are deposited at night, and females can deposit anywhere from 100 to 200
eggs during their lifetime.
The eggs are tiny and can be hard to spot but you might find them because of the unique
spiral pattern on the underside of a leaf.
The female might deposit just one egg on a stem, it just depends on her mood.
They lay their eggs right near prey, just like a lady bug.
Each egg is hung by a hair like string, making it extremely unique.
It almost looks like a work of art!
Green Lacewing eggs are oval and pale green, however, just before they are born, they turn
to a grayish color, but you can barely see them so I guess it doesn’t really matter!
It only takes a few days for the eggs to hatch.
Once they hatch, the larvae immediately feed on aphids, mites, flies, thrips, leafhoppers,
caterpillars and butterfly eggs.
3.)
Snake Eggs About 70% of snakes lay eggs and the rest
give birth to live young.
Egg laying snakes tend to live in warmer climates which help to incubate the eggs.
For those snakes that do lay eggs, they usually find a safe, warm place like in a hollow log
or buried in the ground.
A female snake can lay anywhere from 1 to 100 eggs and they only reproduce once every
three years.
Snake eggs can be recognized by their oblong shape and their leathery texture that can
be white, off-white, or beige.
Once the mother snake lays her eggs, some species will stay with them and others will
leave, and never return.
Snake eggs are pretty strange in that they tend grow as the snake grows inside of them.
Snake eggs are different from other eggs as they are not hard.
Snake eggs can be easily damaged and the chances of embryos dying is quite high, especially
if they are turned or rolled over.
Nature probably made them soft so the baby snake can easily tear through the membrane
with it’s little egg tooth.
The snakes will then lose this tooth shortly after birth.
It usually takes about 30 days for a snake to hatch out of its egg.
2.)
Praying Mantis Eggs The praying mantis is known for laying its
eggs in a sac-like structure, or a basket.
The sac can contain anywhere from 100 to up to 300 eggs.
However, it is believed that only about one-fifth of them will survive into adulthood.
Praying mantis’ are also a great natural alternative to pest control.
They will eat all kinds of things, even each other as we all know from their cannibalistic
mating ritual.
But that’s not really what we are talking about right now.
The sacs are usually hanging from a twig or stem but they can also be found on fences
and walls.
The female mantis places them at least a foot off the ground so the eggs are protected.
The sac is about 1 inch long, rectangular with rounded edges and tan to white.
The eggs are surrounded by a frothy foam which hardens into the casing.
The foam is called ootheca.
When hatching, the young crawl from between tiny flaps in the cases and hang from silken
threads about 2 inches below the case.
After drying out, the long-legged young disperse, leaving no sign of their arrival.
This happens within an hour or two and it's very difficult to know anything has even happened!!
1.)
Knobbed Whelk eggs A knobbed whelk is a type of snail which has
a shell that looks like that classic seashell shape.
The knobbed whelk will produce a string of egg capsules that may be 2-3 feet long, and
each capsule has 20-100 eggs inside.
If they are on the beach for a long time you can shake them and they sound like a rattlesnake.
You can tell the string egg capsule of a knobbed whelk because the capsule will have flattened
sides, which look similar to a coin.
The string itself can resemble more of a plastic slinky.
People often refer to the string egg capsule as a “mermaid’s necklace.”
After laying her eggs, the female knobbed whelk will burry one end of the string so
it doesn’t get washed away into the waters.
But sometimes, accidents happen.
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