From Mizoram, limbless amphibian added to India’s fauna
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Ichthyophis multicolor recorded in Mizoram seven years after the species was first recorded greater than 800 km away within the Ayeyarwady area of Myanmar
A ‘multicolour’ limbless amphibian recorded in Mizoram has been added to India’s fauna.
A couple of specimens of Ichthyophis multicolor have been present in a roadside stream in northern Mizoram’s Kolasib district, greater than 800 km from the place the species was first recorded within the Ayeyarwady area of Myanmar in 2014.
Ichthyophis is recognised as probably the most broadly distributed genus of the caecilian amphibians. The genus is represented by 50 species, 13 of which happen in India.
The nation’s northeast had until 2009 recorded eight of the 13 species of this genus.
“Ichthyophis multicolor is the ninth species of the region and an addition to India’s wealth of fauna,” herpetologist Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga stated.
He is the lead writer of a research on the brand new species of limbless amphibian printed in Check List, a Brazil-based journal of biodiversity information.
His co-authors are Mathipi Vabeiryureilai, Lal Muansanga, Ht Decemson and Lal Biakzuala, all from Mizoram University’s Developmental Biology and Herpetology Laboratory; and Jayaditya Purkayastha of Help Earth, a Guwahati-based NGO.
The species derives its scientific identify from a yellowish lateral stripe separating its brownish higher half from a paler decrease half.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The species derives its scientific identify from a yellowish lateral stripe separating its brownish higher half from a paler decrease half. The size of the specimens assorted from 310-501 mm.
“The recording of Ichthyophis multicolor points to northeast India being the dispersal route of various species from South Asia to Southeast Asia,” Mr. Lalremsanga advised The Puucho.
Dispersal permits animals to keep away from competitors and inbreeding in addition to colonising new habitats.
“We are yet to know caecilians or limbless amphibians in their entirety as they are fossorial (burrowing) and secretive. Such amphibians are often mistaken as snakes or eels or large earthworms and killed out of fear,” Mr. Purkayastha stated.
“Apart from awareness about their ecological utility, this group of amphibians needs more efforts for an understanding of their conservation status,” he added.
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