Brainworms for Velvet Worms (and other kinds of bugs)

most folks know i'm an autistic critter, and one of my handful of special interests is animals and animal biology! i'm interested in them as a broad category, but i've also got favorites and the occasional hyperfixation on specific species or groups - lagomorphs have been a mainstay since i was very young, and i had "phases" throughout elementary school that included penguins, hamsters, cats, and platypuses, to name just a few off the top of my head! i'd spend a great deal of time poring over factual books or webpages about whatever animal held my interest at the moment, as well as drawing and creating things related to them.

as the title of this post may suggest, my current hyperfixation is on velvet worms, also known as the phylum Onychophora. my interest in them was piqued somewhere in late 2023 and they've since been living rent-free in my head...a case of brain(velvet)worms, if you will X'3

let's go over some neat facts about these critters!

• the name Onychophora comes from Greek, and means "claw-bearer" - all velvet worms possess two retractable claws on the end of each foot to give them traction on uneven terrain!
• velvet worms are close relatives of Arthropoda (insects, crustaceans, arachnids) and Tardigrada (tardigrades, also called "water bears"!)
• these critters' earliest ancestors can be traced back to the Cambrian period (~500 million years ago), and the first true velvet worms emerged out of the water in the Devonian period (~400 million years ago), just in time for the first forests to pop up on land! they've remained virtually unchanged since then
• while most species have rudimentary eyes, they primarily rely on other senses to navigate the world - their bodies are covered in sensitive papillae that detect minute air currents, and their long antennae further help them navigate by touch.
• velvet worms are ambush predators! they move slowly enough that their prey don't notice their presence, at times getting close enough to touch the unsuspecting victim with their antennae to assess their size. they then use the two smaller "antennae" on their head to shoot a sticky slime to ensnare their prey, and a pair of mandibles finish the job by piercing a softer part of the body and injecting it with digestive fluids. yummy! :>
• these little guys got a whole lot of legs! across the roughly 200 species of velvet worm, the smallest number of legs observed was 13 pairs (Ooperipatellus nanus), and the largest was a whopping 43 pairs! (Plicatoperipatus jamaicensis)

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