''Ooperipatellus'' is a genus of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

velvet worms Onychophora (from , , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, '' Peripatus''), is a phylum of e ...

in the

Peripatopsidae Peripatopsidae or the Southern Velvet Worms are one of two extant families of velvet worm. This family includes more than 140 described species distributed among 41 genera, but some authorities deem only 131 of these species to be valid. The Fre ...

family. Species in this genus are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

. This genus was proposed by Hilke Ruhberg in 1985, with '' Ooperipatellus insignis'' designed at the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. This genus is notable as the only one in which velvet worms have no more than 14 pairs of legs:

Description

Most species in this genus have 14 leg pairs, and '' O. nanus'' has only 13 pairs, the minimum number found in the phylum

Onychophora Onychophora (from , , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, ''Peripatus''), is a phylum of el ...

. Velvet worms in this genus are also among the smallest known, with adults often only 10 to 20 mm long. Species in this genus range in size from ''O nanus'', which can be only 5 mm long, to '' O. nickmayeri'', which can reach 60 mm in length. Velvet worms in this genus have no modified head papillae, the males feature a cruciform

genital A sex organ, also known as a reproductive organ, is a part of an organism that is involved in sexual reproduction. Sex organs constitute the primary sex characteristics of an organism. Sex organs are responsible for producing and transporting ...

opening (

gonopore A gonopore, sometimes called a gonadopore, is a genital pore in many invertebrates. Hexapods, including insects, have a single common gonopore, except mayflies, which have a pair of gonopores. More specifically, in the unmodified female, it is ...

), and the females feature an

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

. This genus contains all oviparous velvet worm species with 13 or 14 leg pairs and no modified head structures (e.g.,

sclerotized Sclerosis (also sclerosus in the Latin names of a few disorders) is a hardening of tissue and other anatomical features. It may refer to: * Sclerosis (medicine), a hardening of tissue * in zoology, a process which forms sclerites, a hardened exo ...

head organs).

Phylogeny

In spite of a disjoint geographic distribution across New Zealand,

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, and

Southern Australia Southern Australia is generally considered to consist of the states and territories of Australia of New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra), Tasmania and South Australia. The part of Western Australia south of ...

, morphological and molecular data indicate that this genus is a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group.

Molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, ...

studies indicate that this

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

includes two

subclades In genetics, a subclade is a subgroup of a haplogroup. Naming convention Although human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups and subclades are named in a similar manner, their names belong to completely separate syste ...

, one containing species in New Zealand and the other containing species in both Tasmania and mainland Australia.

Paleogeographic Palaeogeography (or paleogeography) is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term paleo ...

evidence indicates that glacial events severed the land connection between Tasmania and mainland Australia more recently than rifting broke the land connection between Australia and New Zealand, which would explain the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

tree that emerges from molecular studies of this genus.

Species

The genus contains the following species: * '' Ooperipatellus decoratus'' (Baehr, 1977) * '' Ooperipatellus duwilensis''

Reid Reid is a surname of Scotland, Scottish origin. It means "red". People with the surname * Alec Cunningham-Reid (1895–1977), British politician * Alan Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alexan ...

, 1996 * '' Ooperipatellus insignis'' (

Dendy Dendy () is a series of home video game consoles that were unofficial hardware clones of Nintendo's third-generation Famicom system. Produced from late 1992, Dendy consoles were manufactured in Taiwan using Chinese components on behalf of the ...

, 1890) * ''

Ooperipatellus nanus ''Ooperipatellus nanus'' is a species of velvet worm in the family Peripatopsidae. This species is endemic to New Zealand and is found in the South Island. Taxonomy This species was first described by Hilke Ruhberg in 1985. Description '' ...

'' Ruhberg, 1985 * '' Ooperipatellus nickmayeri'' Oliveira & Mayer, 2017 * '' Ooperipatellus parvus'' Reid, 1996 * '' Ooperipatellus spenceri'' Cockerell, 1913 * '' Ooperipatellus viridimaculatus'' (Dendy, 1900) ''Ooperipatellus cryptus'' Jackson & Taylor, 1994 is considered a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium,'' it may be impossible to determine whether a ...

'' by Oliveira et al., 2012.

References

Onychophorans of Australasia Onychophoran genera {{Onychophora-stub