New Zealand Peripatus vs Grey Longhorn

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute New Zealand Peripatus Grey Longhorn
Scientific Name Peripatoides novaezealandiae Acanthocinus griseus
Order Onychophora Coleoptera
Family Peripatopsidae Cerambycidae
Size 30-80 mm 8-16 mm
Habitat Rivers & Streams Forests
Diet Wood Feeders Wood Feeders
Regions Oceania (New Zealand) Europe, Caucasus, Western Siberia
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

New Zealand Peripatus

A velvet worm native to New Zealand, representing one of the most ancient terrestrial animal lineages. Although not an insect, it is closely related and is a fascinating part of New Zealand's invertebrate fauna. It captures prey by shooting streams of sticky slime.

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Did You Know?

Velvet worms shoot jets of quick-hardening slime up to 30 centimetres to entangle prey, a hunting technique virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

Grey Longhorn

A small, cryptically colored longhorn beetle with grey pubescence and faint darker markings on the elytra. It inhabits conifer forests across Eurasia, breeding in dead branches still attached to trees. Adults are nocturnal.

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Did You Know?

Males guard females during oviposition by standing on top of them, preventing rival males from mating.