04/09/2009

Brazilian species of Onychophora with notes on their taxonomy and distribution

A revision of the currently known distribution of Onychophora (velvet worms) in Brazil is presented. Twenty-four morphospecies (half of them undescribed) belonging to four genera of the Peripatidae (Peripatus Guilding, 1826, Epiperipatus Clark, 1913, Macroperipatus Clark, 1913 and Oroperipatus Cockerell, 1908) are recorded. This high number of "unidentified" morphospecies is due to three major reasons: the poor quality of the characters used in species-level identification, the inadequate specimen conservation in ethanol, and, in most cases, the lack of additional specimens for analysis of int...

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