Feeding behavior of Costa Rican velvet worms: food hiding, parental feeding investment and ontogenetic diet shift (Onychophora: Peripatidae)

Abstract

We report, for the first time in onychophorans, food hiding, parental feeding investment and an ontogenetic diet shift two weeks after birth: from the parent’s adhesive used to capture prey, to the prey itself.

Keywords

• feeding behavior
• Peripatidae
• Panarthropoda behavior
• undescribed Costa Rican onychophorans
• parental investment