Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Epiperipatus cratensis sp. nov. (Onychophora: Peripatidae) from northeastern Brazil

2010; Pensoft Publishers; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4013/nbc.2010.51.07

1809-9939

Samuel Vieira Brito, Janaína Cruz Pereira, Felipe Silva Ferreira, Alexandre Vasconcellos, Waltécio de Oliveira Almeida,

Polar Research and Ecology

This article aims to describe and illustrate Epiperipatus cratensis sp. nov. from Crato (coordinates 07°16’S,39°26’W), Ceara State, Brazil. Specimens of onychophorans were collected under stones and decomposing tree barks during the rainy season. E. cratensis differs from all of the species of the genus by having: (i) many pairs of legs, even though it is the second smallest species in size to the genus in Brazil; (ii) fewer rings of antennas than the other Brazilian species. Furthermore, E. cratensis is similar to E. tucupi, especially because females have 34 pairs of legs, and differs morphologically only by being shorter in size. In addition, this two species are located in different biomes: E. tucupi is endemic to the Amazon region, while E. cratensis is derived from Chapada do Araripe mountains, within Atlantic Forest biome of the Brejos de Altitude complex of northeastern Brazil. Key words: high land humid forest, Epiperipatus, peripatidae, onychophora.