Redescription of the velvet worm Oroperipatus eisenii (Onychophora: Peripatidae), through DNA sequencing, scanning electron microscopy and new collection records from Western Mexico

Abstract

Specimens of Oroperipatus eisenii (Wheeler, 1898) were re-examined, including 13 new records for the species collected in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoacan in Mexico. Scanning electron micrographs that illustrate most of the diagnostic characters were provided allowing a redescription of the species, as well as a map of the localities where the collections were carried out. DNA sequences were obtained from the collected specimens for the cytochrome C oxidase I (COI) gene; results of the similarity analysis showed that there was no genetic divergence for COI within the sampled onychophoran populations. Natural history information of the species is included.