''Mimosiphonops'' is a genus of

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics ...

s in the family

Siphonopidae The Siphonopidae are the family of common caecilians. They are found in Central and South America. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. They are the sister group to Dermophiidae, also of South America. Siphonop ...

. The genus is definitely known only from the state of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. They are sometimes known as the worm patterned caecilians.

Description

The genus is known from few specimens only; these measure between in total length. There are 83–98 vertebrae and 74–88 primary annuli, with the smallest value in both cases pertaining to ''

Mimosiphonops reinhardti ''Mimosiphonops reinhardti'' is a species of caecilian in the family Siphonopidae. It is endemic to Brazil. It is only known from the holotype collected from "Brasilia" in 1878, probably somewhere in eastern Brazil (the city of Brasília did not ...

'' that is known from a single specimen. The eyes are not covered by bone. No scales nor secondary annuli are present. The primary annuli and

nuchal The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is also called the nucha (from the Medieval Latin rendering of the Arabic , "spinal marrow"). The corresponding adjective is ''nuchal'', as in the term ''nu ...

collars and grooves are clearly marked with a white border.

Species

There are two recognized species: * ''

'' Wilkinson and Nussbaum, 1992 * ''

Mimosiphonops vermiculatus ''Mimosiphonops vermiculatus'' is a species of caecilian in the family Siphonopidae. It is endemic to Brazil and known with certainty only from its type locality, Teresópolis in the Rio de Janeiro state. Common name worm-patterned caecilian ...

'' Taylor, 1968

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q750799 Siphonopidae Amphibian genera Endemic fauna of Brazil Taxa named by Edward Harrison Taylor Taxonomy articles created by Polbot