Yes, it’s homework. If you’d rather not help, I understand completely.
To put my request for help in context, I have to find, identify and preserve 50 invertebrate specimens. One has me stumped. I can easily find a different invertebrate, and will if I can’t indentify this one within the next two days, but it’s bugging me that I can’t figure it out, and I’d like to include it in my collection if possible. I’ve tried several different keys and turned up dry.
It has a worm-like, segmented body of just over an inch. Three pairs of legs protrude from segments behind the head. The rest of the segments have no legs. Two small antennae protrude from the head. It is a brown colour. The body terminates with an oddly shaped segment, possibly cerci, and looking vaguely like Batman’s head.
It looks like a centipede, but with only six legs and a different anterior. I’m stumped, anyone have a clue ? (I’m interested in phylum and order, not necessarily species name)
It’s not an earwig, (no wings) or a Caddis Fly larvae, but thanks for the thought, Sock Munkey andIce Wolf.
While I know it’s damn hard to ID it without a photo, I’m hoping it is an adult form and someone recognises it. I lifted him from a paperbark tree branch, so he isn’t aquatic.
Thanks for trying to help, Desmostylus, it’s much appreciated.
It actually does look like a Dipluran, but without antennae and the cerci aren’t as pincer-like, more like blunt protrusions.
Hmmmm, where’s a psychic entomolgist when you need one ?
There’s always the (possibly fairly slight) chance that it’s something that’s never been described before. There are reputedly millions of unnamed insects out there – you have as much chance of finding one as anyone.
Ah, I didn’t realize you were in Australia. Another possibility is that it might be an onychophoran (“velvet worm”). Do they have those down there? Does it look anything like this:
It sounds to me like some sort of insect larva (six legs and wormlike, besides the fact that insects are so abundant that any random invertebrate is likely to be an insect), but IANAE. Can you offer any more detail? Does it seem to have any sort of exoskeleton, or is it purely “squishy”? Are the six legs (and any other proturbances) jointed? What’s its face look like… How many eyes, and what sort? What’s the mouth like?
Mind, I have no idea what the answers to any of these questions would imply, but they seem like they might be good ones to ask.
And if all else fails, include it in your collection (with another, identified specimen, just in case) and say that it’s a specimen of Goous slimeyus :D.
