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Mesoperipatus
Conservation status
Data Deficient  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Onychophora
Family:	Peripatidae
Genus:	Mesoperipatus Evans, 1901
Species:	M. tholloni
Binomial name
Mesoperipatus tholloni (Bouvier, 1898)

Mesoperipatus is a monospecific genus of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family, containing a single species Mesoperipatus tholloni. It is found in Gabon, making it the only known species of velvet worm in the tropics of Africa, and the only known species of peripatid velvet worm in Africa. Females of this species have 24 to 27 pairs of legs; males have 23 or 24. This species is viviparous, but too little is known of its embryology to describe its reproductive mode in any more detail; the presence of a placenta, for example, has not been confirmed.

Conservation

In terms of conservation status, this species is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List.

References

1. ^ New, T.R. (1996). "Mesoperipatus tholloni". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1996: e.T13239A3424284. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T13239A3424284.en. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
2. "Mesoperipatus tholloni". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
3. Monge-Nájera, Julián (1994). "Reproductive trends, habitat type and body characteristcs in velvet worms (Onychophora)". Revista de Biología Tropical. 42 (3): 611–622. ISSN 2215-2075.
4. Mayer, Georg; Franke, Franziska Anni; Treffkorn, Sandra; Gross, Vladimir; de Sena Oliveira, Ivo (2015), Wanninger, Andreas (ed.), "Onychophora", Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Invertebrates 3, Vienna: Springer Vienna, pp. 53–98, doi:10.1007/978-3-7091-1865-8_4, ISBN 978-3-7091-1864-1, retrieved 2023-02-16

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• IUCN Red List data deficient species
• Fauna of Gabon
• IUCN-assessed onychophorans
• Monotypic onychophoran genera
• Onychophorans of tropical Africa
• Onychophoran stubs