Blue Planet 2 viewers terrified by 'alien' Bobbit worm named after wife who cut off husband's penis

The latest episode of Blue Planet 2 left many of its viewers terrified after it featured a clip of the Bobbit worm attacking a fish and eating it with its sharp dagger-like jaws. The 12 November segment of Sir David Attenborough's BBC nature series focused on creatures found in coral reefs and included a video of the ambush predator found in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific waters.

The Eunice aphroditois, as it is known in the scientific world, was seen hiding in the sea bed before it launched itself on a fish, almost slicing it in half. "It's a giant carnivorous worm with a jaw as sharp as daggers. It pays to remember there is a Bobbit about," Attenborough narrated.

The worm, which can grow over 10 feet in length and is known to inject its prey with a toxic venom, meant to stun or kill it, was first given the nickname Bobbit when featured in the 1996 book Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific. It was reportedly named so, in reference to Lorena Bobbitt – an American woman, who in 1993, cut off her husband's penis while he slept before throwing it into a field.

Blue Planet 2 viewers were clearly made squeamish by the worm and described it as something out of their nightmares.

"Is anyone else thoroughly traumatised by the alien-like carnivorous Bobbit worm?" one person posted on Twitter following the episode. "Thank #BluePlanet2, I was running out of ideas for nightmares, but I'll try to fit the worm in," another commented.

"Why's it got such a cute name when it's so f**king terrifying? Bobbit! No," another person wrote, while one mother regretted letting her daughter watch the show before bedtime. "Letting my child watch the #bobbit on #BluePlanet2 just before bed may be the making or breaking of her character," she hilariously posted.