Peripatus or velvet worms are little-known nocturnal creatures living in damp forest in New Zealand and other southern lands. Varying in length from a few millimetres to 22 centimetres, they look like skinny caterpillars with stumpy legs. Some species have striking colours and textures.
New Zealand has five named species, but others are yet to be named.
Peripatus are called velvet worms because their skin has a velvety appearance, caused by thousands of tiny papillae (bumps) with fine bristles. They have short legs tipped with spiny pads and a hooked claw. The number of legs varies depending on the species. New Zealand velvet worms have 13–16 pairs of legs; species elsewhere have from 13 to 43 pairs.
Their distinctive legs earned them the name peripatus, from the same root as the word peripatetic – to walk or wander about. Peripatus is just one genus of velvet worm, but the name is loosely used to include the entire velvet worm phylum or subphylum, Onychophora ('claw-bearers'). Their Māori name is ngaokeoke, from ngaoki, which means to crawl.
Onychophorans were once seen as the missing link between annelids (segmented worms) and arthropods (insects, spiders, crustacea). Like the annelids, they have a hydrostatic ‘skeleton’ – a fluid-filled core surrounded by muscle – instead of a hard exoskeleton like arthropods or a bony skeleton like vertebrates. But like the arthropods, they have chitin (a tough compound, from which their claws are formed), and a tracheal system – a series of tubes that carry oxygen into the body.
Today, the Onychophora are usually placed in the arthropod line of evolution, either as a phylum in their own right or a subphylum in the Arthropoda.
Although most velvet worms have a pair of simple eyes, it is doubtful they can do more than detect light. Their eyes help them avoid daylight, when they would be at greater risk of drying out. Two overseas species lack eyes entirely.
Velvet worms are ancient survivors from the distant past. Fossil remains date from the early Cambrian period, around 520 million years ago. These early fossils are nearly all from the sea and include the strange Hallucigenia – a small worm with pincer-tipped tentacles along one side of its body and spines along the other. Some researchers think that marine peripatus may have been out-competed by marine polychaete worms (bristle worms). This may explain why only those worms that were able to leave the sea and live on land have survived.
Velvet worms alive today are grouped into two families:
The two families may have diverged before the break up of the Gondwana supercontinent, about 85 million years ago. But this has been questioned since the discovery of 20–40-million-year-old fossils in amber from the Baltic region of Europe, and the Dominican Republic. The fossils in amber show important differences to modern species, and may represent two new Onychophoran families. Dominican fossils also appear to be ancestors of the Peripatidae family. The presence of peripatus ancestors in the Baltic is also evidence for a wider past distribution. This means it may be misleading to use the distribution of the two living velvet worm families to understand their evolution.
Currently about 140 species are recognised in 10 genera, two of which occur in New Zealand (Peripatoides and Ooperipatellus). With more DNA analysis this figure will probably increase.
Peripatus today have tracheae (tubes for breathing), but cannot close them as the tubes lack spiracles or valves. This means they lose moisture readily and need to live in damp microclimates to avoid dehydration. However, they can drown in pooling water.
Typically velvet worms live in damp forest, under or inside rotting logs, or in the undergrowth. They have also recently been found in tussock grassland. One egg-laying species (currently unnamed) has been discovered under rocks alongside the Tasman Glacier. Velvet worms are often found in decaying logs on farmland without tree cover.
Research in Australia found that males colonise new logs and secrete a pheromone (chemical signal) which attracts females and other males. It also found that females were much more common than males. The researchers concluded that by seeking out new logs, male velvet worms were put at risk, but reproductive females were spared having to spend time searching for new food and shelter.
New Zealand velvet worms are relatively slow moving – taking about a minute to cover a distance of 20 centimetres. Some overseas species are faster, and can trundle along at up to 60 centimetres a minute.
Velvet worms are active predators, eating invertebrates such as isopods (small crustaceans), spiders, cockroaches, wētā and beetles. Nocturnal and virtually sightless, they recognise prey using their sensitive antennae, and squirt it with a gooey fluid from glands called oral papillae on each side of the head. The twin streams trap the victim in glue. The velvet worm then tears the creature open with its jaws and injects saliva, which contains digestive enzymes. It can then suck out the partially digested innards at its leisure.
New Zealand peripatus can accurately hit prey at a range of several centimetres. They may spit further than this when defending themselves from predators. Some overseas species can spit up to 50 centimetres.
Little is known about the mating behaviour of peripatus. Those in New Zealand probably mate the same way as a South African species. The male deposits a spermatophore (packet containing sperm) anywhere on the female’s body, and she slowly absorbs it. Other species overseas may deposit the spermatophore directly into the female’s genital opening.
Once absorbed, the sperm travel to the eggs or are stored in sperm receptacles until needed. A female may need to mate only once in her lifetime. She can have 16 embryos at different stages of development in her two uteri.
Velvet worms have a variety of birth strategies:
In New Zealand the Peripatoides species give birth to live young, and the Ooperipatellus lay eggs. As far as is known only Australian and New Zealand velvet worms lay eggs. The young resemble adults in shape, but most are white when they are first born or hatched. Their colouring develops later on.
Once a female velvet worm gives birth or her eggs hatch, the young fend for themselves. Their mother may occasionally eat them.
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Trewick, S. A. 'Sympatric cryptic species in New Zealand Onychophora. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 63 (1998): 307–329.
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