Peripatus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Onychophora (velvet worms). It is an invertebrate which gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs. It is said to be a living fossil

Living fossil

Living fossil is an informal term for any living species which appears similar to a species otherwise only known from fossils and which has no close living relatives, or a group of organisms which have long fossil records...

 because it has been unchanged for approximately . Peripatus are native to scattered places around the world including Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

  and other countries, but not in Europe or Antarctica.
Peripatus is a nocturnal carnivore

Carnivore

A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...

. This unique animal has the appearance of a caterpillar with its many pairs of legs, while its structure has many similarities to arthropod

Arthropod

An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...

s, but it also has many similarities to annelid

Annelid

The annelids , formally called Annelida , are a large phylum of segmented worms, with over 17,000 modern species including ragworms, earthworms and leeches...

s, with some special features all of its own.

Anatomy

Peripatus shows no external segmentation; the legs are not jointed like arthropod legs although they possess arthropod-like claws. The outer covering is a cuticle

Cuticle

A cuticle , or cuticula, is a term used for any of a variety of tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings of an organism, or parts of an organism, that provide protection. Various types of "cuticles" are non-homologous; differing in their origin, structure, function, and chemical composition...

, which is covered in unique microscopic projections known as papillae. These papillae give Peripatus their velvet texture. The body is composed of segments like annelids with segmentally arranged nephridia. Peripatus respires through tracheae as arthropods do. Antennae are present on the head. Excretion is through nephridia, which are found in each of the legs.

Feeding

Peripatus feeds by trapping its prey (mostly small insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s) in a white, sticky fluid it ejects from two antennae

Antenna (biology)

Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....

 near its head. The fluid hardens on contact with the air immoblizing the prey. Peripatus then chews a hole in its prey's exoskeleton

Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton of, for example, a human. In popular usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells". Examples of exoskeleton animals include insects such as grasshoppers...

 with its mandibles (which move independently of each other), injects digestive enzyme

Digestive enzyme

'Digestive enzymes' are enzymes that break down polymeric macromolecules into their smaller building blocks, in order to facilitate their absorption by the body. Digestive enzymes are found in the digestive tract of animals where they aid in the digestion of food as well as inside the cells,...

s, and begins sucking out its prey's pre-digested innards.

Species

• Peripatus antiguensis Bouvier, 1899
• Peripatus bavaysi Bouvier, 1899
• Peripatus bouvieri Fuhrmann, 1913
• Peripatus brolemanni Bouvier, 1899
• Peripatus dominicae Pollard, 1894
• Peripatus evelinae (Marcus, 1937)
• Peripatus heloisae Carvalho, 1941
• Peripatus juanensis Bouvier, 1900
• Peripatus juliformis Guilding, 1826
• Peripatus manni Brues, 1913
• Peripatus ruber Fuhrmann, 1913
• Peripatus sedgwicki Bouvier, 1899
• Peripatus swainsonae Cockerell, 1893