Gymnopis syntrema (Cope, 1866)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Dermophiidae > Genus: Gymnopis > Species: Gymnopis syntrema

Siphonops syntremus Cope, 1866, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 18: 129. Type(s): considered lost prior to 1885;  Nussbaum, 1988, Copeia, 1988: 924, provided evidence for the holotype being the same specimen (USNM 25187) subsequently considered by Cope as the holotype of Siphonops oligozonus. Type locality: "the neighboring region of Honduras"; the northern coast of Honduras, according to Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 597.

Siphonops oligozonus Cope, 1877, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 17: 91. Holotype: USNM 25187, according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 4. Type locality: "uncertain"; possibly Chiapas or Tehuantepec, Mexico, according to Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 523. Synonymy of Nussbaum, 1988, Copeia, 1988: 921–928. Formerly considered a synonym of Gymnopis multiplicatus by Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 680–695.

Gymnopis oligozonaPeters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 939; Dunn, 1928, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 10: 76.

Typhlonectes syntremusPeters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 942.

Dermophis syntremusCope, 1885 "1884", Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 22: 171.

Gymnophis oligozonaCope, 1885 "1884", Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 22: 171.

Minascaecilia sartoria Wake and Campbell, 1983, Copeia, 1983: 858. Holotype: KU 189566, by original designation. Type locality: "Aldea Vista Hermosa, Municipio Los Amates, Departamento de Izabal, Guatemala, 650 m". Synonymy by Nussbaum, 1988, Copeia, 1988: 921–928.

Gymnopis syntremusNussbaum, 1988, Copeia, 1988: 921–928. Incorrect gender.

Gymnopis syntremaCampbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 33.

English Names

West Forest Caecilian (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 24).

Mountain Caecilian (Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 33; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 50).

Distribution

Low and moderate elevations in central and eastern Guatemala (Sierra de las Minas), Belize (Maya Mountains) and in the the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, Municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico, 300 to 1000 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Belize, Guatemala, Mexico

Comment

Taylor erected the genus Copeotyphlinus for a species based on a long-lost holotype for which only the original description remains. Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 691; Nussbaum, 1979, J. Herpetol., 13: 121–123; Wake and Campbell, 1983, Copeia, 1983: 857–863, and Nussbaum, 1988, Copeia, 1988: 921–928, reviewed this problem. See account (as Minascaecilia sartoria) by Wake, 1988, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 412: 1. See also accounts by Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 36–37; Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 33–34; and Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 50. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 33–34, compared this species with the others of Central America and provided maps, and photographs. González-Hernández, Hernández-Ordóñez, Cervantez-López, and Reynoso-Rosales, 2014, Rev. Mexicana Biodiversidad, 85: 645–649, provided the first record for Mexico (Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, Lacandona region, Chiapas). 

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