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Velvet wprms lurking on Dunedin's highway - Source: ONE News -
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Dunedin's insect loving locals are up in arms over a proposed four-lane highway that will hinder the growth of the Peripatus Worm.
The Peripatus, otherwise known as the Velvet Worm, is a rare insect that has been on the scene for 100s of millions of years.
The Dunedin City Council along with Forest and Bird have been fostering a reserve that neighbours the current highway for the Peripatus, but the new highway plans will cut a 40-metre strip off its habitat.
This has Martin Thompson of DCC parks and reserves a little concerned for his velvet friend.
"Most of the area has been planted now, and over the next five to ten years it'll really start to establish and mature, and be a valuable reserve in this part of town."
The living fossil has been around, practically unchanged, for nearly 600 million years and some say it's worth protecting not only for its own well-being, but for its little insect mates.
"When you're saving the Peripatus, you're saving hundreds of thousands of other very tiny invertebrates which are totally dependent on the same habitat," said entomologist Anthony Harris.
"They have a couple of warts on either side of the mouth and through these they squirt gum. They come up to the victim and pump digestive juices into it, this causes the insides to dissolve and they suck it up," he said of the merciless hunter.
Jim Hartland of the New Zealand Transport Association says the Peripatus should be able to stand on its own legs if moved to a different location.
"I'm assuming that it'll be possible to relocate a colony if one is found to an area very close by, and they'll be able to exist there," he said.
Let's hope that the many legs of the Velvet worm will be able to stand up to a NZTA's four-lane highway.
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