Making some new antipodean invertebrates for July, the subterranean month for #InsertAnInvert2024 ๐งช๐ก
You may not know the velvet worms if you live outside the tropics & in the N hemisphere. There are 2 families of them: 1 in the tropics & the other, like my Lino block depicts, from the southern ๐งต
hemisphere (once parts of Gondwana). They are velvety (& cute, if ruthless nocturnal sticky slime spitting hunters) but they arenโt worms or even quite arthropods like insects. Onychophora are a phylum of soft-bodied many-legged creatures resembling caterpillars who never become butterflies. ๐งต2/n
Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives of the Arthropoda (insects, crustaceans, spiders & such) & Tardigrada (you know, the nearly indestructible tardigrades) with which they form the proposed taxon Panarthropoda. ๐งต3/4
Yes! I mean the whole ovoviviparous situation is a lot on its own. Tasmania is so full of little evolutionary paths that get weird because it's been isolated for so long. Growing up there made me curious about what's endemic wherever I'm living or visiting. Thank you for making cool, thoughtful art!
