Description
Slender body, measuring up to 226 mm in total length (Malathesh et al. 2002). Head is slender and oval-shaped, with a subterminal mouth (Malathesh et al. 2002). 101-110 primary annuli and 7 secondary annuli are present (Malathesh et al. 2002). Eyes are buried under skull bone, but visible externally (Giri et al. 2003). Tentacles are closer to the nostril than the eye (Malathesh et al. 2002). No tail is present (Malathesh et al. 2002).

In life, the body coloration is pinkish-red, with the dorsum slightly darker than the ventrum. The head and collars are lighter, more yellowish-pink, and the snout and jaws are light yellow (Malathesh et al. 2002; Daniel 1963; Taylor 1968).

Gegeneophis carnosus can be confused with G. ramaswamii, particularly small G. ramaswamii. The main difference is that G. carnosus has visible eyes, but it is difficult to determine the visibility of the eye in small specimens without a microscope and good lighting (Giri et al. 2003). These species overlap in the number of primary annuli (101-110 in G. carnosus, 98-104 in G. ramaswamii), though they differ in the number of secondary annuli (7 in G. carnosus, 8-14 in G. ramaswamii (Malathesh et al. 2002). G. carnosus has a more slender body that is nearly uniform in width, while G. ramaswamii has a thicker body that is widest at the terminus (Malathesh et al. 2002).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: India

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Found in the Western Ghats, India. The type locality is Periya Peak in Wayanad District, Kerala State, India, at 800 m asl (Beddome 1870). Occurs in humid evergreen forest, under cover of rocks in porous soil, as well as in lightly-farmed agricultural areas (Gower et al. 2004). This species has also been described from General Cariappa Biodiversity Park, Madikeri, Kodagu District, Karnataka State, where specimens were dug out from porous, humus-rich soil around the roots of thick shrub vegetation along small streams, at 1143 m (Malathesh et al. 2002). However, reports from southern Kerala refer to a different species, G. ramaswamii (Gower et al. 2005).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Assumed to be oviparous with terrestrial, direct-developing eggs (Gower et al. 2004).

Trends and Threats
The population status is not known (Gower et al. 2004). It may be present in two protected areas, General Cariappa Biodiversity Park (Malathesh et al. 2002) and Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka, though both reports need to be confirmed (Gower et al. 2004).

Comments
Records from southern Kerala are erroneous, and refer to Gegeneophis ramaswamii (Gower et al. 2005). Much of the literature published on endocrinology of "G. carnosus" (published in the 1980s-1990s) is actually based on G. ramaswamii (Gower et al. 2005). Nearly all of the specimens used in the caecilian endocrinological work were collected from a single locality, Bonaccord, on a tea estate, where G. ramaswamii is present in high abundance (Gower et al. 2005).

References

Beddome, R. H. (1870). ''Descriptions of new reptiles from the Madras Presidency.'' Madras Monthly Journal of Medical Science, 2, 169-176.

Daniel, J.C (1963). ''Field guide to the amphibians of Western India, Part 1.'' Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 60(2), 415-438.

Giri, V., Wilkinson, M., and Gower, D. J. (2003). ''A new species of Gegeneophis Peters (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from southern Maharashtra, India, with a key to the species of the genus .'' Zootaxa, 351, 1-10.

Gower, D. J., and Wilkinson, M. (2005). ''Conservation biology of caecilian amphibians.'' Conservation Biology, 19(1), 44-45.

Gower, D., Wilkinson, M., Oommen, O. V., Measey, J., Dutta, S., Bhatta, G., and Ravichandran, M. S. (2004). Gegeneophis carnosus. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 13 April 2009.

Malathesh, G. M., Gundappa, K. R., Reddy, S. R., and Shakuntala, K. (2002). ''A redescription of Gegeneophis carnosus (Beddome, 1870) (Amphibia: Gymnophiona).'' Zoos' Print Journal, 17, 723-728.

Taylor, E.H. (1968). The Caecilians of the World. A Taxonomic Review. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2009 Gegeneophis carnosus <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/1881> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 28, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 28 Dec 2024.

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