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

Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo

An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature with a vicious hunting method that involves projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New Zealand's bug of the year.

The Peripatoides novaezealandiae is from the family of velvet worms, or Ngokeoke in the Mori language. The invertebrates have rows of pudgy legs and skin speckled like a galaxy, and are considered living fossils", having remained virtually unchanged for 500m years.