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Speleoperipatus
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Onychophora
Family:	Peripatidae
Genus:	Speleoperipatus Peck, 1975
Species:	S. spelaeus
Binomial name
Speleoperipatus spelaeus Peck, 1975

Speleoperipatus is a monospecific genus of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family, containing the single species Speleoperipatus spelaeus. This species is a pale greenish yellow, almost white, with 22 or 23 pairs of legs and no eyes. Specimens range from 27 mm to 34 mm in length. The minimum number of leg pairs found in this species (22) is also the minimum number found in the neotropical Peripatidae. This velvet worm is viviparous, with mothers supplying nourishment to their embryos through a placenta.

Distribution and habitat

Speleoperipatus spelaeus is a troglobiont known only from two cave systems in northern St. Catherine, Jamaica; Pedro Great Cave and Swansea Cave.

One other troglobitic velvet worm species is known; Peripatopsis alba, from Wynberg Cave and Bats' Cave, on Table Mountain, South Africa.

Conservation

Only seven individuals have been found as of 2021; four specimens collected by Dr. Stewart Peck in 1975 at Pedro Great Cave, one individual found (not collected, but confirmed photographically by Peck) at Swansea Cave by members of the Jamaican Cave Organisation (JCO) in 2010, and two more found again at Swansea Cave by the JCO in November, 2021. The species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

References

1. New, T.R. (1996). "Speleoperipatus spelaeus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1996: e.T20460A9202417. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T20460A9202417.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
2. Oliveira, I.; Hering, L. & Mayer, G. "Updated Onychophora checklist". Onychophora Website. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
3. Peck, Stewart B. (1975). "A review of the New World Onychophora with the description of a new cavernicolous genus and species from Jamaica" (PDF). Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 82 (3–4): 341–358. doi:10.1155/1975/98614.
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
5. ^ R. S. Stewart (February 13, 2010). "Swansea Cave". Jamaican Caving Notes. Jamaican Caves Organisation. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
6. New, T. R. (1996). "Speleoperipatus spelaeus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1996: e.T20460A9202417. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T20460A9202417.en.

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• IUCN Red List critically endangered species
• Blind onychophorans
• Critically endangered fauna of North America
• Endemic fauna of Jamaica
• IUCN-assessed onychophorans
• Onychophorans of tropical America
• Monotypic onychophoran genera
• Troglobitic onychophorans
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