Aotearoa New Zealand’s peripatus, a velvet-skinned, grey-blue, caterpillar-like creature, are little changed from 500 million years ago and have their own phylym: Onychophora.

Peripatus are commonly known as velvet worms from their velvety appearance and in Māori as ngāokeoke.  They can be found throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, but are restricted to moist, dark microhabitats, and only come out at night to prey on other invertebrates, which they catch with jets of a sticky substance expelled from a pair of modified limbs.

Four species of velvet worm are present, or near, Otago: Peripatoides taitonga, P. otepoti, Ooperipatellus viridimaculatus are confirmed in the region. Whereas P. waikaia is currently documented only from native forest towards the head of the Waikaia River just outside Otago’s boundary.