''Eoperipatus'' is a
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
n genus of
velvet worm
Onychophora (from grc, ονυχής, , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (due to their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, '' Peripatus ...
in the family
Peripatidae
Peripatidae is a family of velvet worms. The oldest putative representatives of the family herald from Burmese amber dated to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 Ma, with representatives from Dominican and Baltic amber attesting to a broader distribu ...
.
The number of legs in this genus varies within species and ranges from 22 pairs (in ''
E. butleri'') to 25 pairs (in ''
E. horsti'' and ''
E. weldoni'').
Species
The genus contains the following described species:
* ''
Eoperipatus butleri''
Evans, 1901
* ''
Eoperipatus horsti''
Evans, 1901
* ''
Eoperipatus totoro
''Eoperipatus totoro'' is a species of velvet worm of the family Peripatidae discovered in Vietnam in 2007. As of 2013, it is the only velvet worm known from Vietnam. The specific name is derived from caterpillar-like Catbus from the Japanese a ...
''
Oliveira et al., 2013
* ''
Eoperipatus weldoni''
Evans, 1901
''Eoperipatus sumatranus''
(Sedgwick, 1888) 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 s ...
'' by Oliveira et al. 2012.
First recorded in Vietnam, ''Eoperipatus'' has now been found distributed throughout South-East Asia. An undescribed species is known to occur in
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
. In addition, unidentified onychophorans have also been observed in
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and in central
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, north of the known distribution of ''Eoperipatus totoro''. These may or may not represent distinct species.
These species have been hard to study as they live in cryptic environments and have low population densities.
References
External links
*
*
Onychophorans of southeast Asia
Onychophoran genera
{{Onychophora-stub