Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 381 No. 1: 12 Dec. 2003
Type: Article
Published: 2003-12-12
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.381.1.1
Page range: 1–11
Abstract views: 65
PDF downloaded: 6

A new species of Chthonerpeton (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) from Bahia, Brazil

Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Caixa Postal 74524, Seropédica, RJ, 23851-970, Brazil
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Geociências, Departamento de Geografia, Campus Praia Vermelha - Avenida Litorânea, Boa Viagem, Niterói, RJ, 24210-340 Brazil
3Museu Nacional, UFRJ, Departamento de Vertebrados, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, RJ, 20940-040, Brazil
Amphibia Chthonerpeton noctinectes sp. nov. natural history

Abstract

A new species of the Chthonerpeton indistinctum group is described from Brazil based on fourteen specimens collected in the Municipality of Conde, State of Bahia. The new species is characterized by 94–103 primary annuli, 100–108 vertebrae, tentacular aperture closer to nares than to eyes, umpigmented cloacal disk and narial plug areas, and by the number of vomeropalatine and dentary teeth that is smaller than that of the other species in the group. The new species is aquatic and fossorial, and can be found swimming actively at night or borrowed in mud in places near the river.

References

  1. Azpelicueta, M.M., Williams, J.D. & Gudinas, E. (1987) Osteologia y notas miológicas en la cecilia neotropical Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Reinhardt & Lutken, 1861), con una diaganosis de la Familia Typhlonectidae (Amphibia, Gymnophiona). Iheringia, Zoologia, (66), 69–81.

    Barrio, A., Saes, F.A. & Chieri, P.R. (1971) The cytogenetics of Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Amphibia Gymnophiona). Caryologia, Firenze, 24, 435–445.

    Barrio, A. (1969) Observaciones sobre Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Gymnophiona: Caecilidae) y su reproducion. Physis, 28(77), 499–503.

    Cascon, P. & Lima-Verde, J.S. (1994) Uma nova espécie de Chthonerpeton do nordeste Brasileiro (Amphibia, Gymnophiona, Thyphlonectidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia, 54(4), 549–553.

    De Carlo, J.M. (1980) Anatomía microscópica del sistema respiratorio de Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Gymnophiona, Typhlonectidae). Physis, 39 (96), 27–36.

    De Sá, R. & Berois N. (1986) Spermatogenesis and histology of the testes of the caecilian, Chthonerpeton indistinctum. Journal of Herpetology, 20 (4), 510-514.

    Gudynas, E. & Williams, J.D. (1986) The Southermost Population of a caecilian, Chthonerpeton indistinctum, in Uruguay. Journal of Herpetology, 20(2), 250–252.

    Gudynas, E., Williams, J.D. & Azpelicueta, M.M. (1988) Morphology, ecology and biogeography of the South American caecilian Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae). Zoologische Mededelingen, 62(2), 5–28.

    Measey, G. J. & Di-Bernardo, M. (2003) Estimating juvenile abundance in a population of the semiaquatic caecilian, Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae), in southern Brazil. Journal of Herpetology, 37(2), 371–373

    Nussbaum, R.A. (1986) Chthonerpeton onorei, a new caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) from Ecuador. Revue Suisse Zoologie, 93(4), 911–918.

    Nussbaum, R.A. & Wilkinson, M. (1987) Two new species of Chthonerpeton (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) from Brazil. Occasional. Papers Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, (716), 1–15.

    Nussbaum, R.A. & Wilkinson, M. (1989) On the classification and phylogeny of caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona), a critical review. Herpetological. Monographs, 3, 1–42.

    Taylor, E.H. (1968) The Caecilians of the World: A Taxonomic Review. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 848 pp.

    Taylor, W.R. & Van-Dyke, G.C. (1985) Revised procedures for staining and clearing small fishes and other vertebrates for bone and cartilage study. Cybium, 9, 107–119.