Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sao Tome and Principe

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Comments
This species was featured in News of the Week 7 June 2021:

O'Connell et al. (2021) investigated speciation in caecilians from the small oceanic island of São Tomé off the west coast of Central Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. Although small, the island of São Tomé exhibits dramatic variation in habitat type, with dry habitats in the north and rainforest in the south. They found two genetically distinct lineages of caecilians corresponding to yellow populations in the north (Schistometopum thomense) and brown spotted populations in the south (Schistometopum ephele). Further, they found evidence of hybridization at the transition of the two habitat types. The authors proposed that late Pleistocene volcanic activity separated caecilians on the island and favored local adaptation to wet and dry climates, leading to speciation and the maintenance of a hybrid zone. This study is one of the first to document speciation histories in caecilians and lays the groundwork for future studies of reproductive isolation in this group. (written by Rayna Bell)

References
Nussbaum, R.A. and Pfrender, M.E. (1998). Revision of the African caecilian genus Schistometopum Parker (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). Miscellaneous Publications Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 187, 1-32. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2025 Schistometopum ephele: Aqua Ize Caecilian <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/9384> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Apr 7, 2025.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2025. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 7 Apr 2025.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.