Velvet worm (Peripatus sp.) with mosquito prey (2)
This and the following photos will represent some of the first, still photos of velvet worm anatomy and feeding behaviour that I have come across over a public forum. There is the awesome documentary life in the undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough put out by the BBC that has some amazing footage of a velvet worm in action. You can see that here: boingboing.net/2011/03/02/death-and-the-velvet.html. Unfortunately my mpe is no longer and so I was reduced to using a raynox msn-202 coupled with a 100mm macro lens. Despite that I was able to get some serviceable pictures.
Nearly six years of searching and I have finally come across a velvet worm! This is was of my awesome finds. Probably rarer than a jaguar, most people I know only ever come across a few in their lifetime. Reclusive, living in low densities they are nocturnal predators with a strongly negative phototactic response. They are usually found in low vegetation though this one was found on a leaf at chest height. These are what those cuddly, fuzzy creatures that morph into blood curdling monsters are based on. They appear as slow, gentle creatures until they begin hunting and then you see the darker, more monstrous side!
They have a slow ponderous movement and their legs move asynchronously. The stubby feet end in what look almost like claws or feet belonging to an animal. They move their antennae back and forth searching for food. When they do locate food they halt, rear up slightly, pause imperceptibly and then their modified front legs which act like miniature canons fire a spray of adhesive that is 90% water which hardens in the air. I touched the adhesive and it is STICKY!!! I pulled up a mosquito lassoed with this glue and ripped the body in half, it is obviously more than adequate for the size of the prey that the velvet worm hunts. They swivel and rotate these 'canons' in a 'Z' or 'S' pattern to increase the surface area to trap their prey. However this motion occurs faster than the eye can see. All I saw was the recoil of the 'canons', I did not see the swiveling motion which is said to occur in .07 seconds! If the prey is large enough it may fire several times. The prey is bound to the surface substrate and the velvet worm approaches...
The velvet worm waits until some of the struggling of the prey has abated and then it moves over the prey. It has an operculum in the ventral surface from which it everts a kind of feeding apparatus that is disproportionately large with the scale of the invertebrate. It possesses two fangs which bite down into the prey and inject proteolytic enzymes and possibly poisons to kill the prey. It then takes up bits of digested prey into its stomach where it is further digested. Complete digestion of the mosquito occurred within roughly 15 minutes.
Velvet worms have remained unchanged for roughly 570 million years (Wikipedia) and uncharacteristically give birth to live young!
Found during a night hike in Reserva Bilsa, Mache-Chindul, Ecuadorian coastal rainforest.
Velvet worm (Peripatus sp.) with mosquito prey (2)
This and the following photos will represent some of the first, still photos of velvet worm anatomy and feeding behaviour that I have come across over a public forum. There is the awesome documentary life in the undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough put out by the BBC that has some amazing footage of a velvet worm in action. You can see that here: boingboing.net/2011/03/02/death-and-the-velvet.html. Unfortunately my mpe is no longer and so I was reduced to using a raynox msn-202 coupled with a 100mm macro lens. Despite that I was able to get some serviceable pictures.
Nearly six years of searching and I have finally come across a velvet worm! This is was of my awesome finds. Probably rarer than a jaguar, most people I know only ever come across a few in their lifetime. Reclusive, living in low densities they are nocturnal predators with a strongly negative phototactic response. They are usually found in low vegetation though this one was found on a leaf at chest height. These are what those cuddly, fuzzy creatures that morph into blood curdling monsters are based on. They appear as slow, gentle creatures until they begin hunting and then you see the darker, more monstrous side!
They have a slow ponderous movement and their legs move asynchronously. The stubby feet end in what look almost like claws or feet belonging to an animal. They move their antennae back and forth searching for food. When they do locate food they halt, rear up slightly, pause imperceptibly and then their modified front legs which act like miniature canons fire a spray of adhesive that is 90% water which hardens in the air. I touched the adhesive and it is STICKY!!! I pulled up a mosquito lassoed with this glue and ripped the body in half, it is obviously more than adequate for the size of the prey that the velvet worm hunts. They swivel and rotate these 'canons' in a 'Z' or 'S' pattern to increase the surface area to trap their prey. However this motion occurs faster than the eye can see. All I saw was the recoil of the 'canons', I did not see the swiveling motion which is said to occur in .07 seconds! If the prey is large enough it may fire several times. The prey is bound to the surface substrate and the velvet worm approaches...
The velvet worm waits until some of the struggling of the prey has abated and then it moves over the prey. It has an operculum in the ventral surface from which it everts a kind of feeding apparatus that is disproportionately large with the scale of the invertebrate. It possesses two fangs which bite down into the prey and inject proteolytic enzymes and possibly poisons to kill the prey. It then takes up bits of digested prey into its stomach where it is further digested. Complete digestion of the mosquito occurred within roughly 15 minutes.
Velvet worms have remained unchanged for roughly 570 million years (Wikipedia) and uncharacteristically give birth to live young!
Found during a night hike in Reserva Bilsa, Mache-Chindul, Ecuadorian coastal rainforest.