mhedin's Favorites

Tasmanipatus barretti - giant velvet-worm, NE Tasmania, April 2013. Velvet-worms are among the oldest of land-animals, having been around for half a billion years. Today they're mostly found in the southern continents. Tasmania hosts dozens, perhaps hundreds, of species, most of which remain to be formally described. The giant velvet-worm is Tasmania's largest, reaching a 'whopping' 5 cm. It is confined to a small part of the northeast corner of the state, and is considered threatened because long-term supplies of its favoured habitat, rotting logs, are vulnerable to fires, firewood-collecting and forestry activities. Its protected status means that it cannot knowingly be disturbed without a permit. Although they can be most reliably found in the 'mudguts' rot in the middle of old logs, at night, and in damp weather, they will also venture out into leaf-litter. Their favourite food is termites, ensared in glue projected from cannons on the velvet-worm's head. This species gives birth to live young.

There are other Tasmanian velvet-worms featured on my Flickr site too. Search the site for 'Onychophora'.

More about the strange lives of velvet-worms here: www.wired.com/2014/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-velvet-...