Ichthyophis kodaguensis Wilkinson, Gower, Venu, and Venkatachalaiah, 2007

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Ichthyophiidae > Genus: Ichthyophis > Species: Ichthyophis kodaguensis

Ichthyophis kodaguensis Wilkinson, Gower, Venu, and Venkatachalaiah, 2007, Herpetologica, 63: 511. Holotype: BNHS 4179, by original designation. Type locality: "Venkidds Valley Estate, about 20 km south of Madikeri (5 Mercara), Kodagu (5 Coorg) District, southern Karnataka, India, 1143 m above sea level".

English Names

Kodagu Striped Ichthyophis (original publication; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 130).

Kodagu Striped Caecilian (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 16).

Distribution

Known only from 1) the vicinity of the type locality (Venkidds Valley Estate, ca. 20 km south of Madikeri, Kodagu District); from 2) Basarekattae, Koppa Taluk, Chickmagalur District; and 12km north from Madikeri Town in Kodagu District, all three in southern Karnataka State, India, 1143 m elevation). See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India

Endemic: India

Comment

The second locality was provided by Bhatta, Dinesh, Prashanth, and Srinivasa, 2011, J. Threatened Taxa, 3: 2104–2107. Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 130, implied that the species occurs in adjacent Kerala but provided no specific locality. Venu, 2013, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 32: 197-202, reported on the karyotype. A brief characterization, photograph, and dot map provided by Subramanian, Dinesh, and Radhakrishnan, 2013, Atlas of Endemic Amph. W. Ghats: 181. Molur and Molur, 2011, Frog Leg, 16: 22–23, provided an additional record from Kodugo District, Karnataka, India. See comments by Kotharambath, Wilkinson, and Gower, 2024, J. Vert. Biol., Prague, 73: 1-12, regarding systematics and range. Venu, Venkatachalaiah, Balakrishna, Varadh, Nishtha, Ramakrishna, Raju, and Browne, 2024, Reptiles & Amphibians, 31 (e18714): 1–6, discussed the range, morphology, and conservation biology.  

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.