A REVIEW OF THE NEW WORLD ONYCHOPHORA 
WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW CAVERN ICOLOUS GENUS 
AND SPECIES FROM JAMAICA* 
By Stewart B. Peck 
Department of Biology, Carleton University 
Ottawa, Ontario KiS 5B6, Canada 
Few animals are as avidly sought and as rarely found by inverte- 
brate zoologists in the American tropics as are onychophorans. Yet, 
attempting to determine any specimens which one is fortunate 
enough to find can be a frustrating experience because of the scat- 
tered and incomplete literature. 
In December 1972, while engaged in a survey of the invertebrate 
cave fauna of Jamaica, I discovered an eyeless and depigmented 
onychophoran. At that time, I knew that the only other known 
species of cave-adapted (troglobitic) onychophoran, Peripatopsis alba 
Lawrence 1931, was from one cave in South Africa. To evaluate 
the status of the Jamaican troglobitic species I undertook a review 
of the literature of New World Onychophora, and an examination 
of some 300 specimens in the collections of the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology (Harvard University) and the Institute of Jamaica. 
As a result, I have concluded that a summary of the literature on 
the systematics and distribution of New World onychophorans would 
be of interest, with the description of the new genus and species. 
General treatments of Onychophora morphology, anatomy, and 
biology are those of Cuenot (1949), Zacher (1933), Kaestner 
(1968), Barnes (1968) and the references cited in these and other 
invertebrate texts. 
The only systematic treatment of the Onychophora of the world 
is that of Bouvier (1905, 1907). Sedgwick (1908) reviewed the 
classification but did not formally add to it. Cuenot (1949) and 
Brues, Melander and Carpenter (1954) characterize the families 
and subfamilies of the world. No work unites what is known of all 
New World species. Brues (1911) presented a key for some species 
from the Caribbean and surrounding mainlands, adapted from Bou- 
vier. Clark (1913a) revised the American species on a generic level, 
and (1913b) gave an annotated list of species. Keys for the West 
Indian species are available only for the Islands of Hispaniola 
(Brues, 1935) and Jamaica (Arnett, 1961). Clark and Zetek 
* Manuscript received by the editor July 10, 1975. 
341 
