Herpele Peters, 1880

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Herpelidae > Genus: Herpele
2 species

Herpele Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 939. 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. Frétey, Dewynter, and Blanc, 2011, Clé de détermination, Amph. Afri. Centr. Angola: 1–232, provided a key for identification in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 30–31, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species.

Contained taxa (2 sp.):

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.