operipatus totoro doesn't look much like a fearsome predator. In fact, this two-inch long critter resembles nothing so much as a plush, candy-colored caterpillar with wriggly antennae. But this little known animal is no caterpillar. It is a velvet worm — a.k.a. an onychophoran, a group of organisms that today live in tropical regions and trap their insect prey using jets of sticky slime, a-la Spider-Man. Discovered in Vietnam and officially described just last month, this particular species may be new to science, but the onychophorans as a group have long been of interest to biologists for their important role in evolutionary history...