Herpele Peters, 1880
Herpele Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 930. Type species: Caecilia squalostoma Stutchbury, 1834, by monotypy.
English Names
Congo Caecilians (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 24).
Distribution
Southeastern Nigeria east to western Central African Republic and south to extreme western Dem. Rep. Congo; possibly in Cabinda enclave of Angola.
Comment
Wilkinson, Loader, Gower, Sheps, and Cohen, 2003, Afr. J. Herpetol., 52: 83-92, suggested that Herpele is the sister taxon of Boulengerula and together forming the sister taxon of the remaining caeciliids, scolecomorphids, and typhlonectids, a position supported by Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297, and Roelants, Gower, Wilkinson, Loader, Biju, Guillaume, Moriau, and Bossuyt, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 887-892. Wilkinson and Nussbaum, 2006, In Exbrayat (ed.), Reprod. Biol. Phylog. Gymnophiona: 39-78 [65], diagnosed the taxon and discussed evidence of its monophyly.
Contained taxa
External Links
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