Peripatoides is a genus of velvet worms in the family Peripatopsidae, whose species are found in New Zealand. Like all velvet worms, these animals are nocturnal predators that spit a sticky slime to trap their prey. Species of Peripatoides have 14, 15, or 16 pairs of legs.[1]
Peripatoides | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Onychophora |
Family: | Peripatopsidae |
Genus: | Peripatoides Pocock, 1894 |
Species | |
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The Peripatoides novaezealandiae species complex consists of at least five reproductively isolated species described in 1998, each of which has 15 pairs of legs.[2] These species (P. aurorbis, P. kawekaensis, P. morgani, and P. sympatrica) have no morphological characters that distinguish them although they are genetically differentiated.[3][2] Peripatoides novaezealandiae and the cryptic species were considered nomina dubia by de Sena Oliveira et al. (2012) because type localities were identified in the species descriptions rather than holotype specimens. In 2014 the New Zealand Department of Conservation recognised these species.[4] de Sena Oliveira (2023) later located the specimens used in the descriptions and as such no longer considered them nomina dubia.[5] Three additional species were described in 2024.[6]
The genus Peripatoides consists of the following species:[7][6]
This genus exhibits lecithotrophic ovoviviparity; that is, mothers in this genus produce and retain yolky eggs in their uteri.[8] The eggs are fertilized internally, and babies develop inside their mother until large enough to be born, in batches of 4–6, as colourless miniatures of the parents.[1] These live-bearing Peripatoides have dermal-haemocoelic sperm transfer – which means sperm dissolve holes in the skin of the female to enter the body (haemolymph) anywhere on the body wall of the female.[9]
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