The internet doesn't know what to do with this terrifying moth

An image and video of a strange looking insect in Indonesia has gone viral on Facebook as users react to the creature's shocking alien-like appendages. Once again reminding us that nature is as terrifying as any sci-fi novel, the bug which looks like an average moth with giant tentacles growing out of its back, is actually just a normal moth.

"That's not a bug it's a monster," wrote one user. Another said the creature looked like Baphomet, a satanic winged part-goat, part-man that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping when suppressed in the 14th century. Others suggested it was like a weird Pokemon.

As reported by the Cairns Post, the insect is actually a Creatonotos Gangis moth native to Australia and South East Asia. The terrifying posterior tentacles are in fact large scent organs called coremata - used by males to attract females.

The size of the coremata, also known as hair-pencils, depends on the male's diet as a little caterpillar - diets with pyrrolizidine alkaloids, a naturally occurring chemical compound from numerous plants, produce larger coremata with stronger scents.

Originally shared on Wednesday 18 October by a user called Gandik, the post has been shared almost 200,000 times at the time of writing, garnering almost 40,000 comments in the process.

The viral bug will not do much good for Australia's infamous image of being home to some of the world's most fearsome creepy-crawlies - or as one user put it in a comment: "That's disgusting and whatever state this creature is in I'm not moving or going there."