New Species Related to ‘Penis Snake’ Discovered in Burma

RANGOON — A new species of a strange order of limbless amphibian has been discovered in Burma, according to a report in a scientific journal for animal taxonomists.

The Ichthyophis multicolor, or the “colorful ich,” was discovered in Burma’s Irrawaddy Division, according to a report published in Zootaxa journal this month. It is a new species of caecilian amphibians, an order of amphibians which superficially resemble earthworms or snakes, and scientists say it stands out because of its distinct coloring.

Caecilians are among the least studied amphibians in the world because they typically burrow in the soil underground. They live in tropical climates, with about 200 species recognized by scientists. The largest and most famous of these species, known as the “penis snake” (Atretochoana eiselti), was discovered in Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon.

Burma’s colorful ich belongs to the a family of caecilians known as Ichthyophis, which are found in Sri Lanka and India through mainland China, as well as Sundaland and islands including the Philippines that are west of the Wallace Line, an imaginary boundary line that runs through Indonesia and separates animal species of Asian and Australian descent.

“Although multiple species and specimens of Ichthyophis have been documented from Thailand and from Northeast India, including some recently described species, there are only a few old literature records of any caecilians from [Burma], and the caecilian fauna of that country must be considered essentially unexplored and unknown,” a team of scientists from the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand wrote in the report.

The scientists described 14 specimens of striped caecilians that were obtained in 2000 from a single location in Irrawaddy Division by the California Academy of Sciences. The specimens were collected on the surface of sandy, hard packed soil following a period of heavy rain.

“The species is unusual among Ichthyophis in having a dark ventrolateral stripe … bordering a much paler ventral coloration, a feature found elsewhere only in I. tricolor from peninsular India. Numerous other features distinguish the [Burma] population from I. tricolor, indicating the former read more