Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1004 No. 1: 7 Jun. 2005
Type: Articles
Published: 2005-06-07
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1004.1.4
Page range: 37–50
Abstract views: 40
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of Boulengerula Tornier (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from an isolated mountain block of the Taita Hills, Kenya

Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Kaiserstraat 63, 2311 GP, Leiden, The Netherlands
Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Sols Tropicaux (UMR 137), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93143 Bondy Cedex, France
Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Division of Molecular Genetics, University of Glasgow, Pontecorvo Building, 56 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G11 6NU, UK
National Museums of Kenya, Department of Herpetology, P.O. Box 40658-00100 GPO Nairobi
Amphibia caecilians taxonomy herpetology Eastern Arc Mountains East Africa phallus morphology systematics

Abstract

A new species of East African caeciliid caecilian, Boulengerula niedeni spec. nov. (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) is described based on a series of 11 specimens from Sagalla Hill, an isolated mountain block of the Taita Hills in southern Kenya. It differs from all other Boulengerula, except B. taitanus (Loveridge), in being pigmented with whitish marked annular grooves and from B. taitanus by its distinctive brownish colouration, an exposed sphenethmoid, a higher mean number of annuli and vertebrae, and different phallus morphology.

References

  1. Gaborieau, O. & Measey, G. J. (2004) Termitivore or detritivore? A quantitative investigation into the diet of the East African caecilian Boulengerula taitanus (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). Animal Biology, 54, 45–56.

    Glaser, H. S. R. (1984) Observations on an abundant caecilian, Afrocaecilia taitana, in Kenya. ASRA Journal, 2, 47.

    Gower, D. J. & Wilkinson, M. (2002) Phallus morphology in caecilians and its systematic utility. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, London (Zoology), 68, 143–154.

    Gower, D. J. & Wilkinson, M. (2005) Conservation biology of caecilian amphibians. Conservation Biology, 19, 45–55.

    Hebrard, J. J., Maloiy, G. M. O. & Alliangana, D. M. I. (1992) Notes on the habitat and diet of Afrocaecilia taitana (Amphibia: Gymnophiona). Journal of Herpetology, 26, 513–515.

    IUCN (2001) IUCN red list categories and criteria: version 3.1. IUCN Species Survival Commission, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge. UK.

    Kupfer, A. & Himstedt, W. (2002) New data on the copulatory organs in caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona. Zoology 105, Supplement V, 34.

    Loveridge, A. (1935) Scientific results of an expedition to rain forest regions in Eastern Africa. I New reptiles and amphibians from East Africa. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 79, 2–19.

    Measey, G. J. (2004). Are caecilians rare? An East African Perspective. Journal of East African Natural History, 93, 1–19.

    Malonza, P. K. & Müller, H. (2004) A rediscovery after two decades: the Changamwe lowland caecilian Boulengerula changamwensis Loveridge, 1932 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). Journal of East African Natural History, 93, 57–61.

    Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Da Fonseca, G. A. B. & Kent, J. (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403, 853–858.

    Nussbaum, R. A. & Hinkel, H. (1994) Revision of East African caecilians of the genera Afrocaecilia Taylor and Boulengerula Tornier (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliaidae). Copeia, 1994, 750–760.

    Taylor, E. H. (1968) The caecilians of the world: a Taxonomic Review. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 848 pp.

    Wilkinson, M., Loader, S. P., Gower, D. G., Sheps, J. A. & Cohen, B. L. (2003) Phylogenetic relationships of African caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona): insights from mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences. African Journal of Herpetology, 52, 83–92.

    Wilkinson, M., Loader, S. P., Müller, H. & Gower, D. G. (2004) Taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships of Boulengerula denhardti Nieden, 1912 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Zoologische Reihe, 80, 41–51.