Description
Mimosiphonops reinhardti is a caecilian that is only known from one specimen with a total body length of about 186 mm. It has a dorsoventrally compressed body that narrows behind the nuchal collars over the 12 primary annuli. The sides of their heads are almost straight and the sides converge anteriorly and dorsally up to the nares. The rostral tip is blunt and straight dorsally but angular laterally. Their eyes are dorsolateral, elevated, and just below the mid-lateral line of the cranium. The eye and the lenses are visible through the thin skin. Lying slightly closer to the nares than the eyes and closer to an imaginary eye-naris line than the lip, the tentacular region is elevated. They lay above the mid-lateral line of the cranium and are clearly visible dorsally but barely visible ventrally. The tentacular apertures are horseshoe-shaped and visible dorsally and ventrally just behind the anterior margin of the mouth. The mouth is drawn in with the snout protruding beyond the anterior margin of the mouth. Their monocuspid teeth are pointed, recurved, and overall small with the anterior premaxillar-maxillary teeth larger than the posterior teeth. Their nuchal region is slightly bigger than the adjacent body. They have two nuchal collars that are marked by three nuchal grooves the completely encircle the body. Each collar has a dorsal transverse groove, with the groove on the first being shorter than groove on the second. The grooves create a boundary for the annuli and completely encircle the body except for close to the terminal shield, with the three posteriormost annuli more incomplete, dorsally. The last annular is only indicated on the ventral side. At times the annular grooves are also slightly incomplete, dorsally, on the posterior one-third of the body. The posteriormost part of the body forms an unsegmented terminal shield that on the dorsal side has a blunt tip. At the terminal end, the dorsal surface curves toward the ventral surface to give a slightly tapered appearance in lateral view. The cloacal disc, which lies completely in the terminal shield, is subcircular and slightly recessed. The disc has 12 denticulations, 6 anterior. The posterior six are narrower and elongate posteriorly (Wilkinson and Nussbaum 1992).

Mimosiphonops vermivulatus has a bonier roof of the tentacular groove, fewer annuli, and lacks vomerpalatine diastema when compared to Mimosiphonops reinhardti. Mimosiphonops vermivulatus also has a more robust body shape and bolder narrowing of the anterior part of the body on to the nuchal collars. Lastly, the number of vertebrae of the holotype for M. reinhardti is less than the range reported for M. vermiculatus (Wilkinson and Nussbaum 1992).

In preservation, Mimosiphonops reinhardti has no indication of eye-tentacle stripes. A broad white spot surrounded their horseshoe-shaped tentacular apertures. Each collar has a dorsal transverse groove that is marked with white. The last annular groove is not marked with white. The cloacal disc is creamy white. The nares are surrounded by white spots and are dorsolateral and clearly more dorsal than the eyes (Wilkinson and Nussbaum 1992).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Brazil

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

This species is only known from one specimen and is assumed to live in South America, within the general area of eastern Brazil. The actual range is unknown (Wilkinson et al. 2004).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
This species is only known from one specimen. However, they have similar habitat preferences to Siphonops annulatus (Wilkinson et al. 2004). Siphonops annulatus live in forests, grasslands, shrub lands, and savanna with an elevation of about 800 meters (IUCN 2014).

References

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2014). ''Siphonops annulatus.'' The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014: e.T59593A43784684.

Wilkinson, M., Nussbaum, R.A., (1992). ''Taxonomic status of Pseudosiphonops ptychodermis Taylor and Mimosiphonops vermiculatus Taylor (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliaidae) with description of a new species.'' Journal of Natural History , 26, 675-688.

Wilkinson, M., Silvano, D., Carnaval, A.C. (2004). ''Mimosiphonops reinhardti.'' The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2024 Mimosiphonops reinhardti: Reinhardt's Caecilian <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/1915> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 30, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 30 Dec 2024.

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