Typhloperipatus
| Typhloperipatus | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Onychophora |
| Class: | Udeonychophora |
| Order: | Euonychophora |
| Family: | Peripatidae |
| Genus: | Typhloperipatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Typhloperipatus williamsoni Kemp, 1913 | |
Typhloperipatus williamsoni is a species of onychophoran (or velvet worm) known from northeastern India. It is the only member of its genus and is the only South Asian species in the phylum. It is said to be evolutionarily close to the Sumatran Eoperipatus. It was discovered and described by Stanley Wells Kemp in 1913.
Discovery
The species name was after Noel Williamson, a political officer at Sadiya who was murdered in 1911. The murder led to an expedition being led to the Abor region by the British government in India. Stanley Kemp, then an assistant superintendent at the Indian Museum at Calcutta was a zoologist attached to this expedition. The first specimen was found near the gorge of the Dihang River near Rotung. Although the nearest other species from Malaya was typically found in dead wood, these were found mainly under large stones near the roots of trees. Like other velvet worms they discharges a spray of viscous fluid that hardens to trap and arrest small predators and prey.[1]
Description
These velvet worms have no eyes. The colour of the upperside is a deep umber brown with the tips of the antennae slightly paler brown. The papillae on the skin have pale tips and the underside is pale brown. Some individuals have a dark dorsal stripe. It has 19 to 20 pairs of legs, the inner jaw has a serrate edge. The legs have coxal glands, four complete and spiny pads and the feet have two papillae.[1][2]
Although Kemp believed that the species was closer to neotropical forms than to Southeast Asian forms, modern studies place them close to Eoperipatus of Southeast Asia.[3]
References
- 1 2 Kemp, Stanley (1914). "Onychophora. Zoological results of the Abor expedition, 1911-1912". Records of the Indian Museum 8: 471–492.
- ↑ Kemp, Stanley (1913). "Preliminary note on a new genus of Onychophora from the N. E. Frontier of India". Records of the Indian Museum 9: 241–242.
- ↑ Monge-Najera, Julian (1995). "Phylogeny, biogeography and reproductive trends in the Onychophora" (PDF). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 114: 21–60. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1995.tb00111.x.