Ooperipatellus

Ooperipatellus is a genus of Australian and New Zealand velvet worms in the Peripatopsidae family. Species in this genus are oviparous. This genus is notable as the only one in which velvet worms have no more than 14 pairs of legs: Most species in this genus have 14 leg pairs, and O. nanus has only 13 pairs, the minimum number found in the phylum Onychophora. Velvet worms in this genus are also among the smallest known, with adults often only 10 to 20 millimeters long. Species in this genus have no modified head papillae, the males feature a cruciform genital opening (gonopore), and the females feature an ovipositor. This genus contains all oviparous velvet worm species with 13 or 14 leg pairs and no modified head structures (e.g., sclerotized head organs).

In spite of a disjoint geographic distribution across New Zealand, Tasmania, and Southern Australia, morphological and molecular data indicate that this genus is a monophyletic group. Molecular studies indicate that this clade includes two subclades, one containing species in New Zealand and the other containing species in both Tasmania and mainland Australia. Paleogeographic evidence indicates that glacial events severed the land connection between Tasmania and mainland Australia more recently than rifting broke the land connection between Australia and New Zealand, which would explain the phylogenetic tree that emerges from molecular studies of this genus.

Species
The genus contains the following species:


 * Ooperipatellus decoratus (Baehr, 1977)
 * Ooperipatellus duwilensis Reid, 1996
 * Ooperipatellus insignis (Dendy, 1890)
 * Ooperipatellus nanus Ruhberg, 1985
 * Ooperipatellus nickmayeri Oliveira & Mayer, 2017
 * Ooperipatellus parvus Reid, 1996
 * Ooperipatellus spenceri Cockerell, 1913
 * Ooperipatellus viridimaculatus (Dendy, 1900)

Ooperipatellus cryptus Jackson & Taylor, 1994 is considered a nomen dubium by Oliveira et al., 2012.