The Hindu Business Line : A rare amphibian

ON a fine morning trekking in the moist deciduous forests of Western Ghats near Ratnagiri, Varad Giri lifted a stone to discover below it a 20-cm-long rare caecilian (legless amphibian). A commoner would have dismissed it as an earthworm.

The spotting of the caecilian, styled Gegeneophis danieli, was the first-ever in the world, says an excited 33-year old Giri, research assistant, herpetology section, Bombay Natural History Society.

"In a way I have become immortal," he adds. Along with Giri were Vithoba Hegde and Sameer Kehimkar on that important morning. In India, there are 225-odd amphibian species of which 21 belong to the caecilian species; of this 21, 16 are restricted to the Western Ghats.

Two experts from the department of zoology, The Natural History Museum, London, Dr Mark Wilkinson and Dr David Gower, came over to discuss the details and the first report of the findings has been published in an international magazine, Zootaxa. Giri explains the discovery is limited to a single live specimen and adds not much is known about the way of living of the amphibian in general. Giri named it after J.C. Daniel, an expert herpetologist. Gegeneophis danieli has jaws, two tentacles, one on either side, between the eyes and the nostril with the eyes hidden under the skull. It burrows into the earth, though beyond this nothing is known.

The abstract published in Zootaxa says: "A new species of Indian caeciliid caecilian, Gegeneophis danieli (Amphibia: Gymnophiona), is described from a single specimen from the Western Ghats of southern Maharashtra. This distinctive species differs from all other Indian caeciliids in having more numerous secondary annuli (rings) that are not restricted to the posterior half of the body."

In the present case, the specie has primary and secondary rings through the body. A caecilian specie was last reported from Khandala (Maharashtra) in 1960s and was nicknamed, Indotyphlus batterbsyi. Giri, who has done an M.Sc. in Zoology from the Kolhapur University, hopes to get some Government funding to do an elaborate research on the lives of caecilians.

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