''Mimosiphonops reinhardti'' is a species of

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians ...

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. Siphonopi ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It is only known from the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

collected from "Brasilia" in 1878, probably somewhere in eastern Brazil (the city of

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

did not exist at the time). The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''reinhardti'' honors

Johannes Theodor Reinhardt Johannes Theodor Reinhardt (3 December 1816, in Copenhagen – 23 October 1882, in Frederiksberg) was a Danish zoologist and herpetologist. He was the son of Johannes Christopher Hagemann Reinhardt. Biography He participated as botanist in t ...

, Danish zoologist and herpetologist who collected the holotype. Common name Reinhardt's caecilian has been proposed for this species.

Description

The holotype is a male measuring in total length. It has 74 primary annuli and 83 vertebrae. The body is dorsoventrally compressed. The eyes are clearly visible through the skin. The preserved specimen has a pale lilac-grey ground color where the cuticular layer of the skin is intact and a darker brown where this layer is missing. There is a broad and diffuse white patch occupying much of the throat and ventral surface of the

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 , ). The corresponding adjective is ''nuchal'', as in the term ''nuchal rigidity' ...

collars. A pair of white mandibular stripes is present.

Habitat and conservation

There is no information on ecological requirements of this species. It might be similar to ''

Siphonops annulatus ''Siphonops annulatus'', the ringed caecilian, is a species of caecilian in the family Siphonopidae endemic to South America. It may have the broadest known distribution of any terrestrial caecilian species. Description Ringed caecilian measure ...

'' and be an

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

species with direct development (i.e, there is no free-living larval stage). Also threats to this species are unknown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1946388 reinhardtii Endemic caecilians of Brazil Amphibians described in 1992 Taxa named by Ronald Archie Nussbaum Taxonomy articles created by Polbot