The Caecilians of the World: a Taxonomic Review by Edward Harrison Taylor Review By: Marvalee H

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The Caecilians of the World: A Taxonomic Review by Edward Harrison Taylor Review by: Marvalee H. Wake Copeia, Vol. 1969, No. 1 (Mar. 6, 1969), pp. 216-219 Published by: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1441738 . Accessed: 25/03/2014 11:09

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This content downloaded from 192.188.55.3 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:09:44 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 216 COPEIA, 1969, NO. 1 three year period, some of the latter per- add-not only the Indo-Pacific, but this Indo- sonally by Munro. The book must be used Australian archipelago, the richest area in in conjunction with the checklist "The the world for marine fish species, badly needs Fishes of the New Guinea Region" (Papua more work of this high calibre.-F. H. TAL- and New Guinea Agr. J. 10:97-339, 1958), BOT, Australian Museum, 6-8 College Street, a sizable work in itself, including a full list Sydney, Australia. of bibliographic material related to the area, fuller than the book here reviewed. In addition the paper "Additions to the fish THE CAECILIANS OF THE WORLD: A fauna of New Guinea" and New (Papua TAXONOMIC REVIEW. Edward Har- Guinea By Agr. J. 16:141-186, 1964) presents rison of Kansas Press, additions to the checklist and describes a new Taylor. University Lawrence, Kansas, 1968. vii + 848 illus. close to the Scato- pp., family (Rhinoprenidae, $25.00.-Dr. Taylor's years of field work in phagidae), three new genera, and 11 new spe- Central and South America and southeast cies. This trilogy is part of one major Asia and his extensive visits to museums work, and a most useful tool for anyone throughout the world have resulted in the interested in the fishes of the Indo-West publication of this compendium of taxo- Pacific region. nomic information about caecilians. The "Fishes of New Guinea" covers the The book is of two whole of New Guinea and its parts-an introductory surrounding section of 44 and a treatment of island the Bis- pages, groups, including Waigeu, caecilian taxa for some 748 After 48 mark the Islands pages. Archipelago, Admirality of a valuable and and the British pages bibliography, topic Solomons. Numerous keys taxon index closes the volume. Two new are one of the book's The 1076 strong points. families, the Typhlonectidae and the Ich- species considered have brief diagnoses, and are The in thyophiidae, designated. aquatic almost all cases are illustrated by black includes the and white with a few Typhlonectidae genera Typh- plates taken, originals, lonectes, Nectocaecilia, and from works. The fish color Potamotyphlus, published plates Chthonerpeton. The genera of were chosen in cases because Ichthyophiidae clearly many recognized are Rhinatrema, are and not because Ichthyophis, they beautiful, they Caudacaecilia, and needed for taxonomic reasons. Epicrionops. Afrocaecilia, depiction Boulengerula, Brasilotyphlus, Caecilia, I find, in those few with which I Cryp- groups topsophis, Dermophis, Microcae- am that errors have been carried Gymnopis, conversant, cilia, Parvicaecilia, over with no at solution and taxo- Siphonops, Pseudosipho- attempts nops, nomic have not been Luetkenotyphlus, Mimosiphonops, problems probed Copeotyphlinus, Oscaecilia, Idiocranium, Sco- adequately. This is to be in expected any lecomorphus, Schistometopom, Herpele, major compilation. The work is indispens- ible. Uraeotyphlus, Geotrypetes, Gegeneophis, Grandisonia, Praslinia, and "Fishes of Arnhem Indotyphlus, Land" by Ralph Tay- the Caeciliidae. There lor is a different of Hypogeophis comprise very type regional work. are more new forms described in the work Collections, accompanied by adequate field than are included in list data, were made R. R. Miller and were Taylor's putative by on page 9. Thirteen new genera are named a collection from the area. clearly good They (Copeicaecilia of the list is not a described have been worked over a meticulously by genus and is perhaps a typographical con- very competent professional, and the result traction of Copeotyphlinus and Caudacae- is a scholarly addition to the literature. Many cilia, neither being present in the list, but have problems been resolved by this work. both are described in the text; Copeicaecilia It is a pity that Australian museums were is changed to Copeotyphlinus in a separate apparently not visited as a study of their list of errata, but Caudacaecilia remains collections in conjunction with the collec- omitted). I count 42 new species and sub- tion from Arnhem Land would have further species, not the 32 mentioned, for a grand improved this work. total of 165 forms. The summary of previous Ralph Taylor states, "Much of the diffi- work on caecilian taxonomy is valuable, but culty in the identification of the fishes of the much of the material in the introduction is Indo-Pacific region results from lack of re- too cursory to be useful. Dr. Taylor states visions of genera and families." One might that certain morphological characteristics are

This content downloaded from 192.188.55.3 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:09:44 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions REVIEWS AND COMMENTS 217 used as taxonomic characters, but he does place for an initial evaluation of their use. not state in a definitive manner how they Sketches of cloacal morphology for a few are used. Even a parenthetical insertion of species in the taxonomic section without genera when a character state is discussed evaluation and, indeed, without reference to would have been helpful. For example, some them, renders them rather meaningless. indication of the forms in which fins have The section on life histories would be been observed (see page 18) would be ap- enhanced by lists of genera for each general propriate. mode, and more information on habitats Dr. Taylor's evaluation of the scales, could be gleaned from Dr. Taylor's incom- unique to caecilians among amphibians, parable experience without enlarging these arouses one's curiosity. He begins by citing sections too greatly. The discussion of dis- the commonly held presumption that scales tribution is well prepared and cogent, are part of an ancestral piscine inheritance though placing paragraphs on Ichthyophis to prevent desiccation or uncontrolled water and India under the heading of the Sey- intake. He then discusses the presence in chelles detracts somewhat from the organiza- many caecilians of scales associated with the tion. annuli (page 19), and then mentions the The discussion of family and generic cri- presence of curious subdermal scales (page teria, approached by the reviewer with an- 20) in some forms. On page 21 he suggests ticipation, proved disappointing. Dr. Taylor that the annular scales are produced by se- merely lists the characters that he used with cretions from skin glands. If this is indeed neither discussion of variation of the char- the mode of production, previous considera- acters nor presentation of his philosophical tion of the scales as homologues of dermal basis for establishing taxonomic criteria. In scales of fish and correlations with laby- the light of current work in taxonomy with rinthodont scales must be discarded. This its multiplicity of approaches, careful char- leaves open to question the origin of the acter evaluation is essential as a basis for "subdermal" scales. understanding the taxonomic treatment of a The sketchy nature of the general mor- group. phology section might have been improved Of greatest value to the herpetologist who by some literature citation, especially in will use the volume would have been the in- such sections as that on tentacle ontogeny clusion of generalized labelled sketches show- (page 23). A complete review of the litera- ing such characters as nuchal collars, eye- ture on amphibian dental replacement pat- tentacle positions, etc., and an indication of terns seems warranted before Dr. Taylor Taylor's method of counting and measuring. presents further ideas on caecilian denti- If Boulenger, Dunn, and Taylor differ tional patterns. While I recognize that greatly on such "routine" characters, what Taylor does not intend the section to be a of the rest of us? The briefness of the account definitive work on caecilian morphology, the of caecilian morphology and ecology points usefulness of the book to herpetologists not up the many problems available for study on working primarily on caecilians would be members of the order Gymnophiona. We enhanced by references. A number of hy- have Dr. Taylor to thank for advancing our potheses are presented as fact, such as that of knowledge of the group to the place that we the mechanism of cloacal extrusion (page 31). can begin again to consider these problems. Some phenomena worth citing in this section The bulk of the book is devoted to the are briefly mentioned in the "remarks" or taxonomy of caecilians. Keys to orders, "variation" sections in the taxonomic ac- families, genera, and species are included, counts, such as the ability of female Typh- generally utilizing only external characters. lonectes obesus to evert the cloaca. This The keys, by and large, are readily useable, may have some bearing on the as yet un- but some difficulties may occur. Some over- observed means of copulation among cae- lap in counts is noted at critical dichotomies, cilians. While Taylor has mentioned before, and occasional use of locality or of skeletal and does here, the probable value of char- morphology as characters may prove difficult acters of cloacal morphology as taxonomic in the identification of newly collected ma- criteria, he does not delineate these char- terial. Two of Taylor's new species are acters. Information may not be available for omitted from the key to Caecilia, as is a spe- all forms, but this taxonomic work is the cies from the Ichthyophis key. Taxa are

This content downloaded from 192.188.55.3 on Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:09:44 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 218 COPEIA, 1969, NO. 1 consistently illustrated by drawings or photo- used for presumably closely related species. graphs of heads (dorsal, ventral, and lateral A statement of the derivation of proposed views) and the posterior ventral end of the names is rarely included. Dr. Taylor usually body. Frequently included are drawings or fully justifies his designations of new genera photos of dentition patterns, whole speci- and species, but some allocations are par- mens, choanae and tongues, and radio- ticularly interesting and reveal Dr. Taylor's graphs of whole specimens. The quality intuition. A specimen at the Zoologisches of photographs and x-rays is highly varia- Staatsinstitut und Zoologisches Museum, ble, but considering the scarcity and state Hamburg, with data showing that it was of preservation of much of the material, it is collected in Africa, is the type of a new worthwhile to have even the worst of them species corrugatum, placed in the American included. Indications of size are often not genus Chthonerpeton. The only other rep- available or are inapplicable, rendering the resentative of the species is a no-data speci- illustrations of less value. men at the Academy of Natural Sciences, The tables of data included for various Philadelphia. Dr. Taylor simply states that taxa are of particular interest to those the specimens are probably South American workers who deal with caecilians. Dr. Tay- and that there is no reason to suggest that lor presents some information on the degree Chthonerpeton occurs on two continents. of variation for the external and tooth Copeotyphlinus syntremus has a similarly characters he uses, though he does not ana- interesting history. Described (meagerly) by lyze variation per se. Dr. Taylor cannot be Cope (1866, Fourth contribution to the herpe- faulted for failing to present lists of speci- tology of tropical America. Proc. Acad. Nat. mens for each taxon, as Dunn (1942, The Sci., Phila. 18:123-132) and included in American caecilians. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Siphonops, the type and only specimen was 81(6):438-540) did with such care, because lost. From the scanty information on annuli, such lists would have disproportionately in- tentacle position, and teeth, Dunn concluded creased the length of the monograph. that the form belonged to no recognized Each section of the taxonomic portion American genus and suggested that a new contains a definition of each family and a genus was warranted for its reception if more key to the genera in it. It is interesting specimens could be obtained and an ade- that recognition of the families Ichthyophii- quate description made. He left the form dae and Caeciliidae is based on separation as incertae sedis. Taylor, without new speci- of certain apparently primitive oviparous mens, without the type, and without new forms having aquatic larvae (the Ichthy- information, proposes the new genus. ophiidae) from the largely ovoviviparous ter- Resurrection of Epicrionops and Cryptop- restrial forms (the Caeciliidae) rather than sophis are based on characters overlooked following Dunn's suggestion that primitive- by workers preceding Taylor. Inclusion of to-advanced lines exist on each of the major oaxacae as a species of Dermophis and land masses where caecilians occur. Taylor recognition of proxima as a full species of suggests in this work that certain aspects Gymnopis are substantiated by Taylor. He of the morphology of members of the genus clears up the puzzling distribution of Herpele Scolecomorphus are so divergent that familial in Africa and in India by showing that the status is warranted, and he subsequently has Indian species is a Gegeneophis. Recogni- so designated the group in a paper now in tion of the genus Grandisonia and retention press. Each genus is diagnosed, comments of Praslinia and Hypogeophis brings order about the type are made, and general re- to the taxonomy of the Seychelle Islands marks are presented. A key to the species forms. follows. Species are dealt with according to Inclusion of the previous descriptions of the following format: list of type and para- two fossil forms is of interest, but it should types, diagnosis, description of the type, be noted that Taylor suggests that Ich- dentition, color, measurements, variation, thyophis muelleri cannot be associated with and distribution (and occasionally remarks). extant Ichthyophis. Further, Dr. Oskar Kuhn Synonymies precede the type-paratype lists has stated in a letter that the late Tilly for previously described species. Edinger identified Marcus' Prohypogeophis The diagnoses do not always diagnose, material as a Devonian molluscan, a de- largely because different characters are often cision accepted by Marcus.

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A certain redundance of criticism of The comments made here and the requests Dunn's work throughout the monograph per- for expansion of certain sections reflect turbed this reader, though that and some confidence in the vastness of Dr. Taylor's internal inconsistencies and a very few knowledge of caecilians and the hope that typographical errors do not seriously detract he will continue to disseminate his infor- from the value of the work. Inclusion of a mation. The caecilians of the world will number of anatomical papers not mentioned stand as a tribute to Dr. Taylor's knowledge, in the bibliography would have added to diligence, and appreciation of a neglected the completeness of the volume, since this order of amphibians.-MARVALEEH. WAKE, work is obviously the current authority on Department of Biological Sciences, Univer- caecilian taxonomy and on general informa- sity of Illinois, Chicago Circle, Chicago, Illi- tion about the members of the order as well. nois 60680.

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