A slow-moving worm can shoot two jets of a sticky substance out of openings on its head in only a few seconds to trap its prey, according to new research.

Discharge is a common mechanism in the biological world. For example, squids use jet propulsion to swim while archer fish blast insects out of the sky with accurate streams of water.

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Biological jet streams, however, are usually straight. Only a very small number of animals can eject streams in any direction.

Researchers said the worm has a slime-shooting mechanism that can be compared to a large syringe but with its end shaped like a bendy straw. The worm only has to squeeze slightly on this reservoir to shoot the slime with powerful speed and force.

"The geometry of the system allows the worm to squirt fast and cover a wide area. That's the magic," said lead author Andres Concha, formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard SEAS and now an assistant professor at Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile.

Velvet worms belong to a little known phylum called Onychophora. These soft-bodied animals have several rows of legs.

The worms hunt and defend themselves using the unique tactic of firing jets of sticky mucous-like goo from an opening on the tops of their heads to immobilize their prey.

The bodies of velvet worms have branched slime glands. Upon sensing prey or danger, a worm can rapidly fire a jet of sticky fluid from openings called oral papillae.

These papilla can fire three or more times in just a fifteenth of a second, covering a larger area and making it more likely to snare its prey.

The insights into this incredible system could allow researchers to build ultra-efficient flexible microfluidic systems that facilitate the mixing of substances or development of fibrous nets.

The findings also raises the question of how a complex and efficient squirting mechanism such as this evolved to work in worms of different sizes.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

TagsVelvet Worm Uses Elastic Body to Catch Prey, Worm, velvet worm, sling slime, slime body, slime glands, microfluidic systems, Onychophora, vertebrates