onychophoran and 500 million years and taxonomic uncertainty

One of the advantages of missing a word at the annual National Senior Spelling Bee is that I then learn it thoroughly and thus never miss it again. This, surprisingly, is more helpful than you might otherwise have thought, since I was given some words this year in the oral rounds which I also had last year (terpsichorean, cappelletti); thus when onychophoran strikes again, I will be ready. But I feel I need to do more--not simply learn to spell the word but, as it were, enter into the world of the word I missed. Maybe by doing this I am making some sort of attenuated peace offering, apologizing as it were to this creature for misspelling its name at the Bee. I discovered, as is true with most things in the world, that onychophorans have a very interesting story to tell, and I have expertise and time to tell only a little of it here. Online resources are plentiful but brief, and vol. 2 of Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 109-111, has a recent "take" on them. As this web site says, however, even the taxonomic status of onychophorans is now under review. Thus, scientists are now admitting that they may not really know where to "place" them in the order of living things. And just think, all I wanted to do was to spell their name correctly!

Meeting An Onychophoran

First, a word on the word. The Greek word "onyx" means "claw" and the verb "pherein" means "to bear" or "to carry," and so the onychophorans are some kind of insects who are claw-bearing. The word goes back to the early 19th century when there was a veritable explosion of terminology to try to describe the species, genera and families of the world. Someone has no doubt written a book on this phenomenon, but I would love to see a chronological work of 19th century history where all the author would do would be to review the newly suggested scientific words each year. Thus, one chapter might be entitled "1815" and would have nothing to do with Napolean and Waterloo but only with scientific names. I wonder if there is such a tome available...

Well, let's begin with a picture of the little guy.

I wanted to make him big enough so that we could see him. As you see, he (or she) is like an earthworm but different, like a worm, but different and, as scientists have concluded, a sort of cross between an annelid and a arthropod, but different from both. Thus, they are considered a separate phylum, with but two families and only "cryptic species." Here is a little more on their description.

Description

According to evolutionary biologists, the onychophoran has changed little in 500 million years. Just think, we get bored with professors who haven't changed their lecture notes in a decade, but the onychophorans have outdone those professors by a multiple of 50 million. They have a soft and flexible cylindrical body, with a pair of annulated antennae on the head. The onychophoran is not segmented or, rather, only its head is segmented into three parts. On either side of the mouth is an oral tube which actually is quite important for the onychophroan because it is the opening which shoots a jet of sticky material to immobilize its (insect) prey and thus enable them to slither up to the prey and eat them. This "slime" as it is called can be projected up to 1.6 feet. I wonder if, just as humans have watermelon seed-spitting contests, the onychophorans ever have "slime throwing" contests. I wonder also if these little critters (only a few cm. in length) formed the basis for one of Bill Murray's movies. Didn't people get "slimed" in one of his mindless flicks?

They have loads of feet (called oncopods). Each oncopod, and they have between 13 and 43 pairs of them, is a "conical, unjointed appendage with a foot that bears a pair of terminal claws" (hence the name). Covered with a thin cuticle adorned with papillae (little nipples), the onychophoran thus has a velvety or smooth appearance. But you probably won't have an opportunity to touch the onychophorans, since they live under logs and out of the sight of humans; they flee light. Why not make up a term for them? They are lucifuges (the OED only has an entry for lucifugous, which is an adjective).

I think I will conclude with one more brief essay, emphasizing their SEX life.

1963