@article {1394, title = {The highest chromosome number and first chromosome fluorescent in situ hybridization in the velvet worms of the family Peripatidae}, journal = {Zoological Studies}, volume = {59}, year = {2020}, month = {03/03/2020}, pages = {1-8}, abstract = {

The diversity of Onychophora is poorly studied, despite there being nearly 200 described species divided in two families: Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. Peripatid velvet worms are found mainly in the Neotropical region. The low morphological diversity in Peripatidae is an obstacle to determining its taxonomy, and chromosomal analyses can help clarify this. The aim of this work was to chromosomally analyze one species of Epiperipatus from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Conventional staining and telomeric fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were performed with the gonads of three males of Epiperipatus sp. The specimens showed 2n♂ = 73, the largest diploid number found in Onychophora to date, with the majority of chromosomes acro/telocentrics and the largest element submetacentric. The FISH marked the telomeric region of all elements and revealed one Interstitial Telomeric Site (ITS) on the proximal region of the long arm large submetacentric chromosome. The absence of male meiosis and female cell division in the analyzed specimens prevented us from determining whether the unpaired large submetacentric is a sex chromosome, which could lead to the description of a rare sex chromosome system (SCS) in Onychophora, or a case of fusion between autosomes. In either case, the presence of ITS is a clear indication of chromosomal fusion.

}, keywords = {Cryptic species, Epiperipatus, Heteromorphic chromosome, Interstitial Telomeric Site, karyotype}, issn = {1810-522X}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.6620/ZS.2020.59-05}, url = {http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/59/59-05.html}, author = {Duarte Dutra, D{\'e}bora and Bonfim Souza, Lucas Henrique and Medeiros Cordeiro, L{\'\i}via and Araujo, Douglas} } @article {426, title = {Morphological and molecular phylogeny of Epiperipatus (Onychophora: Peripatidae): a combined approach}, journal = {Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society}, year = {2020}, month = {07/11/2020}, pages = {1-31}, abstract = {

Onychophora, or velvet worms, are a key group for understanding ecdysozoan evolution. It comprises two families: Peripatopsidae, largely of Austral distribution, and Peripatidae, which is circumtropical. The interrelationships between the members of Peripatidae present many taxonomic issues exacerbated in the radiation of the Neotropical species or Neopatida. To understand the phylogeny of Neopatida, and to test the information of such morphological characters, we gathered novel molecular and morphological datasets focusing on Neotropical specimens. Our data were analysed using a combination of parsimony and maximum likelihood for the individual and combined molecular and morphological datasets. An analysis of morphology alone was inconclusive, supporting the notion that morphological characters used in peripatid taxonomy have little power to resolve phylogenetic relationships among higher taxa in Neopatida. However, the analyses of molecular or combined data show a split of the Neotropical species into two clades, which we use to reassign genera. Epiperipatus, as currently understood, is non-monophyletic, because it includes species of monotypic genera. To avoid paraphyly of Epiperipatus, the following new combinations are proposed: Epiperipatus bouvieri (Fuhrmann, 1913), Epiperipatus hitoyensis (Oliveira et al., 2012a), Epiperipatus solorzanoi (Morera-Brenes \& Monge-N\ájera, 2010) and Epiperipatus sucuriuensis (Oliveira et al., 2015).

}, keywords = {biogeography, cara{\"\i}bes onychophorans, conserved morphology, Epiperipatus, morphology, Neopatida, New World, Peripatidae, South America, systematics}, issn = {0024-4082}, doi = {10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa100}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa100/5959943}, author = {Costa, Cristiano Sampaio and Giribet, Gonzalo and Pinto-Da-Rocha, Ricardo} }