Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Dermophis mexicanus (Duméril and Bibron, 1841)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Dermophiidae > Genus: Dermophis > Species: Dermophis mexicanus

Siphonops mexicanus Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 284. Holotype: Not stated; MNHNP 4275 registered as holotype, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 4. Type locality: "Mexique"; restricted to "Cuatotolapam", Veracruz, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 347.

Amphisbaena versatilis Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 60. Nomen nudum. MS name presented as a junior synonym of Siphonops mexicanus and attributed to Johnston.

Dermophis mexicanus — Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 937.

Gymnophis clarkii Barbour, 1926, Occas. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 5: 191. Holotype: MCZ 11047, by original designation. Type locality: "Tela Honduras". Synonymy by Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 272; Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 680–695.

Dermophis mexicanus mexicanus — Dunn, 1928, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 10: 73.

Dermophis mexicanus clarki — Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 272. Status rejected by Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 680–695, and Savage and Wake, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 52–64.

Dermophis eburatus Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 473. Holotype: UMMZ 65674, by original designation. Type locality: "Nicaragua". Synonymy by Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 680–695.

Dermophis septentrionalis Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 513. Holotype: ZMH A00267 (formerly "ZMH No. 2", by original designation). Type locality: "Brasilien" as discussed in the original publication and by Hallermann, 1998, Mitt. Hamburg. Zool. Mus. Inst., 95: 200, who noted that this might not be the original label; presumably Guatemala, according to comment in the original description by Taylor (Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 513) referencing a specimen from Guatemala in the ZMH noted by Dunn, 1942, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 91: 437–540, which Taylor considered likely to refer to the holotype, the same spevcimen, with the data having been lost/modified in the intervening 26 years (likely involving WWII). Synonymy by Savage and Wake, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 680–695.

Dermophis mexicanus eburatus — Taylor, 1973, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 50: 227.

Gymnophis mexicanus — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 407.

English Names

Mexican Caecilian (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 13; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 8; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 23; Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 35; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 49; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 6).

Distribution

Low and moderate elevations from south-central Veracruz and eastern Oaxaca (Mexico) along the Atlantic slopes (excluding the Yucatan Peninsula) to northeastern Honduras, and along the Pacific slopes to western Nicaragua; lower Motagua Valley of Guatemala from near seal level t0 1500 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua

Comment

Savage and Wake, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 52–64, substantially revised this species through the recognition of several former synonyms as distinct species. McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 89–92, provided an account. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 36, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 30–32, compared this species to others in Central America, provided maps, and photographs. Hernández-Ordóñez, Arroyo-Rodríguez, González-Hernández, Russildi, Luna-Reyes, Martínez-Ramos, and Reynoso-Rosales, 2015, Rev. Mexicana Biodiversidad, 86: 457–468, reported localities from the Lacondona Rainforest in Chiapas, Mexico.

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.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.