 O and Y-C-H-O-P-H-O-R-A, Conocophora, commonly known as velvet worms due to their velvety texture and somewhat worm-like appearance or more ambiguously as peripatous after the first described genus. Peripatous is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged panarthropods. In appearance they have various leaping compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon smaller animals such as insects, which they catch by squirting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number of species is likely greater. The two extant families of velvet worms are peripatidae and peripatopsidae. They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator. It is the only phylum within Animadia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments. Velvet worms are considered close relatives of the arthropidae and tardigradae, with which they form the taxon panarthropidae. This makes them a paleontological interest, as they can help reconstruct the ancestral arthropod. In modern zoology, they are particularly renowned for their curious mating behavior and for baring live young.