First Record of Peripatus juanensis Bouvier, 1900 (Onychophora, Peripatidae) Found in Cecropia (Rosales, Urticaceae) Fallen Trunks in Puerto Rico

Abstract

During a fieldwork expedition to collect beetles of the families Lycidae and Tenebrionidae at the El Verde Field Station in the El Yunque rainforest, we had a fateful encounter with two specimens of Peripatus juanensis Bouvier, 1900. Peripatus juanensis is an endemic species and the only velvet-worm (Onychophora) occurring in Puerto Rico. The species is currently classified in the family Peripatidae (Peck, 1975; Oliveira et al., 2012). Despite the fact that this is the only species of Onychophora from Puerto Rico, little is known about its biology and life cycle.