Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year award

<p>Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo </p><p>An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature with a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/17/tree-killing-beetle-found-to-be-attracted-to-britain-most-common-spruce">vicious hunting method</a> that involves projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year.</p><p>The <em>Peripatoides novaezealandiae</em> is from the family of velvet worms, or Ngāokeoke in the Māori language. The invertebrates have rows of pudgy legs and skin speckled like a galaxy, and are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/11/it-wont-end-like-jurassic-park-that-was-a-movie-the-man-who-wants-to-bring-the-woolly-mammoth-back-to-life">considered “living fossils”</a>, having remained virtually unchanged for 500m years.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/20/velvet-worm-new-zealand-bug-of-the-year-winner">Continue reading...</a>