Onychophora (ZOOA CC-2-3-TH) Introduction
Onychophora (ZOOA CC-2-3-TH) Introduction - Onychophorans or velvet worms are carnivorous, terrestrial invertebrates, which inhabit tropical and temperate forests of the southern hemisphere and around the equator, where they are mainly found in rotted logs and leaf litter (Ruhberg 1985, Reid 1996, Mayer 2007, Oliveira et al. 2012a). So far, about 200 species of Onychophora have been described (Mayer and Oliveira 2011, 2013, Oliveira et al. 2012a, 2013a). They are classified in two major subgroups, the Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae, which diverged prior to the break-up of Gondwana over 175 million years ago (Hamer et al. 1997, Allwood et al. 2010, Braband et al. 2010, Jeffery et al. 2012, Mayer and Oliveira 2013, Murienne et al. 2014). Onychophorans have a typical worm- shaped body with 13–43 pairs of stumpy, unjointed legs (= lobopods), the number of which varies inter- or intra-specifically (Ruhberg 1985, Reid 1996, Oliveira et al. 2012a, 2012b). The anterior-most limbs have been modified to three pairs of specialized cephalic appendages: the sensory antennae, the jaws situated within the mouth cavity, and the slime papillae, which are used for defence and prey capture (Manton and Heatley 1937, Read and Hughes 1987, Storch and Ruhberg 1993, Mayer et al. 2010, Oliveira and Mayer 2013). Onychophorans are predators that use a sticky slime secretion produced in large glands and ejected via the slime papillae to entangle the prey, such as crickets and other small invertebrates (Manton and Heatley 1937, Lavallard and campiglia 1971, Ruhberg and Storch 1977, Read and Hughes 1987, Baer and Mayer 2012). After the prey has been immobilized using the glue-like slime, its cuticle is punctured with the jaws and digestive saliva is injected into its body (Manton and Heatley 1937, Baer and Mayer 2012).
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