The Real Life Bugs of Hollow Knight

all over the world. And there are more than 300 species of spiders that imitate the behavior and morphology of ants, either as a way of hunting them or to avoid being attacked by them. Of course, apparently Nosk can read minds and shapeshift at will. There are no spider-like ants that can change shape, but we can't know for sure whether they can read minds or not. Mask Maker has these

real

ly long arms, similar to those found on the whip spider and the tailless whip scorpion. While these things are arachnids, they are not technically spiders or scorpions. Their pedipalps have evolved into arm-like limbs that allow them to grasp prey similar to praying mantises.

Another non-spider found in Deepnest is the Garpede. These creatures appear to be centipedes or millipedes. They are known as centipedes in the game code, but centipedes typically only have one pair of legs per body segment, while centipedes have two. It's a little suspicious, but it gets worse when we talk about Dirt Carver. This creature looks a lot like a silver fish, but in the game code they are known as "baby centipedes." So this is most likely Garpede's baby form. But apparently, Dirt Carvers are born from Carver Hatchers, winged creatures that spit Dirt Carvers from their . None of this makes any biological sense, since centipedes don't even grow wings.

It's so bad that even the game itself just gives up. Outside of Deepnest we can find a character called Hex in Spirit's Glade, who appears to be a tarantula. Tarantulas are a family of spiders that can be most easily defined by their fangs. Unlike spider fangs, which point inward, tarantula fangs point downward. Another clue is that tarantulas' eyes are usually all located at the front of the head, while spiders' eyes are all over the place. All the creatures I have talked about so far have been arthropods. But Hollow Knight goes even further. There are the slug-like creatures like Salubra,   Unn and potentially Gorb.

There are the Fog Canyon jellyfish-like creatures, which are incredibly similar to

real

-

life

jellyfish, as they can fly through the air and explode on contact. There are mushrooms that talk with a shared mind, which could be a nod to how a fungal organism can actually be a giant complex underground system. There are the Channel fins, which are horrible and I hate them. And then there are the plant-like characters, like the Gray Mourner, who appears to be some kind of withered flower. But I wanted to finish this video on the Pale King, specifically the Wyrm form of him.

Obviously it doesn't look much like any real worm, but I do want to mention a specific type of worm called a bloodworm. The interesting thing about bloodworms is that they actually have metal teeth made of copper, which they use to inject poison into their victims. So anyway, it's a slight visual similarity to the Pale Wyrm. I'm not sure whether or not bloodworms have the power of foresight and can undergo transformations. Wikipedia doesn't mention it, so it's a definite possibility. All in all, I'll have to put Hollow Knight at C tier for an accurate representation of the

bugs

.

Honestly, I'm surprised this game is so popular for being so riddled with basic misconceptions about entomology. I remember the first time I played it and I almost threw up when I saw how inaccurate Mother Gruz was from an ecological perspective. While the world of Hollow Knight doesn't mirror the world of insects as closely, it still does a great job of capturing how truly strange insects can be. We hope this video has helped you get a better look at the original creatures behind Team Cherry's designs. If you want to learn more about insects and animals in general, I recommend you watch TierZoo, who helped me with this video.

If you are interested in its content, you can check it out at Facebook.com/theTierZoo. He also uploads content to a sketchy-sounding website called YouTube. So check it out if you're feeling brave. As for me, well, I reached my upload quota for this half of the year. See you in August.