New worms

[ben]

My new caecilians, i think they're Herpele sp probably squalastoma but i'm not sure play dead when you first pick them up then once you've put them down they move like lightning into the substrate like something from "Tremors"

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34667.jpg
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34668.jpg

Ben

[pollywog]

Very nice Ben, I managed to get a pair of these too, my photo's arn't quite as clear as yours though, I'm having trouble getting them to keep still http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/dizzy.gif:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34679.jpg
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34680.jpg

[paris]

very cool- are these an aquatic or terrestrial specie? i wish we had a little more apoda variety here in the US....http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/sad.gif

[william]

they are terrestrial, you would have thought that the USA would have more species, it's true.

[ben]

Terrestrial is being kinda hopeful totally fossorial is more accurate, buried until i dig them up once a week to count them! However i'm constructing a wormery for them in the hope that deep substrate but very thin viv means i get to see them a bit more.I'll post more pics as it develops and they settle in.
Ben

[william]

thats sounds good, you could even cover up the front of the vivarium so they burrow along the glass and then remove the cover when you want to see them.

[ben]

thats me plan, it's being built as a prototype for an exhibit if it works will be on show at a zoo near you, well if you live in the uk anyway!
Ben

[william]

not chester zoo! they were doing some renovating in the "cave" bit of the tropical house when i visited a few weeks ago.

[paris]

yeah ive always though that deep but thin tanks would be useful in showing the underground dwellers off well-kind like an ant farm for fossoral amphibshttp://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/lol.gif

[edward]

except that usually fossorial stuff rubs crud over the glass in the burrows making it impossible to see them and a real pain to correct as you need to tear the cage down.

Ed

[edward]

They also look like Geotrypetes (which are available from time to time in the USA).

You need to key them out if you can.

Ed

[steve]

Hi Ed,

Could you please let me know where you got them and how much you paid?

Thanks,
Steve

[ben]

Hi Ed it's strange you should mention the Geotrypetes i was looking at Henk Wallays site last night and mine look much more like his Geotrypetes than the Herpele so doubt was beginning to edge into my mind. Where's the best place for me to get positive id?
Cheers Ben

[william]

i suppose you could find out from the importers exactly where they came from...

[pollywog]

I spoke to the importers of mine and they came in from Cameroon but listed as Borumuelleri lamottei?? Which means absolutly nothing to me. I also know which exporters they use in Cameroon and they are advertising both Herpele squalostoma and H.multiplicata.
However looking at Henks pictures of G.seraphini the one photographed above does look very much like them.
The two I have are quite a bit different the other not shown above is a purplish colouration with less obvious banding and looks more like Henks H.squalostoma photographs:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34792.jpg
Here is a pic of them both together so you can see the colour difference:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/34793.jpg

[william]

that is not a species of caecilian it is a mix of the species names of two different caecilians of the genus crotaphatrema, from the scolecomorphidae family.


(Message edited by will j on April 22, 2005)

[nate]

I know this is waaaay too late, but maybe it can still be helpful.

Those are definitely not Herpele, because the eyes of Herpele are never visible; they're located under the cranium.

Maybe they are Crotaphatrema lamottei?