Native Critter Hunt

[Stella]

Last night some friends and I donned gumboots and warm clothing, armed with torches, sticks and cameras, went into an area of native bush looking for native snails (Powelliphanta traversi tararuensis in this case)

Never done it before, but I had spotted one in the area randomly before. This was a purposeful expedition.

We found quite a few! I think I found two, two guys found four each (I think) and one guy found none. (We got quite compettitive with this of course...! Take a bunch of adults critter hunting and they all turn into big kids )We all found about two shells each, they get washed down by the rain so were fairly easy to find. (it is illegal to take native snails or their empty shells)

We also started turning logs and stones. I was very excited to find some peripatus (velvet worms) a tiny thing that looks crossed between a worm and a caterpillar but it neither. They are an evolutionary missing link, unchanged for billions of years and I think are supposedly ancestor to all insects..... kewl! They are carnivorous, shooting their prey with super-sticky immobilising goo from two head-mounted propulsion devices. They then suck the insides out while the critter is still alive.... I now have three sitting beside me in a chinese takeaways container....

And we found two enormous native worms. They were very muscular! Amazing to hold. They were about 1cm thick and the torch in the photo is 17cm long.

[Afrikan]

Thanks for sharing Stella, sounded like you guys had a blast...

Neat pics... I get this weird little snail now and then in my garden, a real flat shell, almost pancake flat.... wonder what that could be? Might try and take a shot of it if I see them again sometime later this year...

[Stella]

You are extremely unlikely to see native snails in gardens, but people frequently see a little (up to 1-1.5cmish) snail with a flat shell and a thin blue-grey body. I think it is a South African import.

I can't remember the name sorry.

There was definitely trouble winding down and sleeping afterwards!

[Afrikan]

Ahhh that sounds like what it is Stella, the ones I had seen have a grey body... very cute snail too... thanks for that, didn't know they were an import, just wondered what they were :lol:

[Insect Direct]

Im a critter, dunno about native though :lol:

Love the look of the velvel worm, very kool are you gonna keep them (alive), would love to see them feeding

[Stella]

I always thought 'critter' meant something small and 'creepy-crawlie'...

Thanks to Dictionary.com:

crit·ter (krĭt'ər)

n. Informal

1. A living creature.

2. A domestic animal, especially a cow, horse, or mule.

3. A person.

Critter, a pronunciation spelling of creature, actually reflects a pronunciation that would have been very familiar to Shakespeare: 16th- and 17th-century English had not yet begun to pronounce the -ture suffix with its modern (ch) sound. This archaic pronunciation still exists in American critter and in Irish creature, pronounced (krā'tŭr) and used in the same senses as the American word.

The most common meaning of critter is "a living creature," whether wild or domestic; it also can mean "a child" when used as a term of sympathetic endearment, or it can mean "an unfortunate person."

In old-fashioned speech, critter and beast denoted a large domestic animal. The more restricted senses "a cow," "a horse," or "a mule" are still characteristic of the speech in specific regions of the United States.

The use of critter among younger speakers almost always carries with it a jocular or informal connotation.

The things you learn!

[Insect Direct]

good to know what i am after all these years i must say :bounce: