Details
Siphonops annulatus
The ringed caecilian is a limbless amphibian that lives underground in South America. Ring-like folds divide the body, giving it an earthworm-like appearance.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It inhabits moist Neotropical forest, grassland, and farmland soils, as well as deep leaf litter. It avoids drying conditions and tunnels through soft, damp ground.
Length is 28-45 cm and weight 30-90 g. The body is long, cylindrical, and limbless, with circular grooves, tiny eyes, and sensory tentacles on the head.
Nocturnal and solitary, it spends most of its life below ground. After rain or on humid nights it may move close to the surface.
A carnivore, it eats earthworms, termites, insect larvae, and other small soil animals. It pushes through soil with the head and bites prey at close range.
Eggs are laid in moist soil, where the female coils around them. Hatchlings are known to feed for a time on the mother's nutrient-rich skin.
It is listed as Least Concern. Though rarely seen, it depends on moist soils and healthy leaf-litter layers.
