Velvet Worm

Onychophora, commonly known as velvet worms for their velvety texture and somewhat worm-like appearance, is a phylum of long, soft-bodied, many-legged animals that have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars and slugs. All living onychophorans prey on other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime, and approximately 232 species have been described, though the true number is likely much greater. The two extant families, Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae, show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids predominantly equatorial and tropical and the peripatopsids all found south of the equator, and velvet worms are considered close relatives of arthropods and tardigrades, with which they form the clade Panarthropoda.