Genetic differentiation within New Zealand Onychophora and their relationships to the Australian fauna

Specimens of peripatopsid Onychophora from New Zealand (the viviparous Peripatoid.es novaezealandiae and P. suteri and the oviparous Ooperipatellus insignis) have been analysed by allozyme electrophoresis and compared with three species of viviparous peripatus and O. insignis from Australia. The data indicate that at least two species of Peripatoides are present, in addition to those described. Populations collected from Dunedin, in the South Island, are not referable on morphological grounds to any described genus. Furthermore, specimens exhibit such a high level of genetic distinctiveness that we speculate they have diverged from the Peripatoides and Euperipatoides lineages prior to the separation of Australia and New Zealand some 95 Myr ago. Specimens referable to O. insignis from New Zealand are genetically quite distinct from O. insignis at its type locality in Australia and must be considered endemic.