Herpele squalostoma (Stutchbury, 1836)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Herpelidae > Genus: Herpele > Species: Herpele squalostoma

Caecilia squalostoma Stutchbury, 1836 "1834", Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 17: 362. Type(s): Not known to exist, presumably at the "Bristol Philosophical Institution" at one time. Type locality: "Gaboon, Africa".

Herpele squalostomaPeters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 939.

English Names

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

Shark-mouthed Caecilian (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 30).

Distribution

Southeastern Nigeria east to western Central African Republic and south to extreme western Dem. Rep. Congo; Bioko I.; presumably in Cabinda enclave of Angola but not so far recorded there.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola

Comment

Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 13, noted habitat for one collection in Nigeria. Frétey, Dewynter, and Blanc, 2011, Clé de détermination, Amph. Afri. Centr. Angola: 1–232, provided a key for identification in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Baptista, Conradie, Vaz Pinto, and Branch, 2019, In Huntley, Russo, Lages, and Ferrand (eds.), Biodiversity in Angola: 255, suggested that this species probably extends into the Cabinda enclave of Angola. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 42, summarized the literature for Gabon. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 30–31, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See brief account and range map for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230.  

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