So we all made it through another week of Wild Facts.  It was a great week as we managed to observe Leafy Sea Dragons, Indian Cobra’s and of course, Miss Piggy’s Cousin the Hog Badger.  We are going to end the week with an extremely unusual animal.  Today’s animal is called the Velvet Worm which is not actually a worm.  In fact, they are not even an arthropod (i.e. centipedes, mites, etc) and belong to their very own Phylum.  Believe it or not this bizarre creature may play an important role for paleontologists who are trying to reconstruct the arthropod ancestry.

It is pretty interesting to think that these animals are so unique that they don’t really fit in with other animals in the world today.  So what does the oddball animal look like?  Well, these segmented creatures have an average length of 5 cm but range in length between 0.5 cm to 20 cm.  They have anywhere between 13 and 43 pairs of legs (that means they have between 26 and 86 legs).  I know how you folks generally feel about icky creatures with lots of legs but at least these ones have a dry, velvety type of skin.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have this soft, velvet like animal crawling on you?

Recently, the Velvet Worm has been becoming more and more popular among pet enthusiast.  Yes, people have pet Velvet Worms.  It would probably be tough finding a collar and a leash for them but other than that they might make fun pets.  This popularity is due in large part to their appearance but also to their incredibly wicked eating habits.  So how do they eat?  Excellent follow up question my good friend.  The Velvet Worm is an ambush hunter that hunts in the darkness of the night.  This worm-like animal is able to detect oncoming prey up to 4 cm away (that is quite a bit for a small animal).  They use their antennae to indicate the size of the prey.  The Velvet Worm prefers smaller creatures such as woodlice, termites, crickets, spiders, centipedes, etc.  The fun part comes once they realize the prey is of suitable size and within range.  Once this occurs the night predator will eject a sticky slime from their antennae in order to subdue the prey.  That’s right, they actually utilize a weapon.  Basically, the poor termite was just held up at antennae point while walking home late at night.  Naturally, this slimy adhesive stops the prey in their tracks and provides ample time for the Velvet Worm to finish off what it started.  This is why you always need to know where your small invertebrates are at all times.  They make one bad decision and end up covered in Velvet Worm slime.

I could keep talking about this animal as they have many more interesting features but I will save it for another day.  Have a great weekend!