Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Typhlonectes natans (Fischer, 1880)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Typhlonectidae > Genus: Typhlonectes > Species: Typhlonectes natans

Caecilia natans Fischer in Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 941. Syntypes: ZMB 9522-23 (2 specimens) according to Bauer, Good, and Günther, 1993, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 69: 287, and BM 1946.9.6.85 (originally 1881.4.9.5), by museum records, apparently on exchange from ZMB. Type locality: Río Cauca, Colombia; given as "Cauca, Nebenfluss des Magdalenenstroms in Neu-Granada" by Fischer, 1880, Arch. Naturgesch., 46: 217, who also described the taxon as new.

Typhlonectes natans — Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 941.

Thyphlonectes natans — Fuhrmann, 1914, Mem. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 5: 113.

Thyphlonectes compressicauda venezuelense Fuhrmann, 1914, Mem. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 5: 120. Holotype: ZMB 3702 (lost), according to Bauer, Good, and Günther, 1993, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 69: 299; ZMH A00257 considered a syntype by Hallermann, 1998, Mitt. Hamburg. Zool. Mus. Inst., 95: 200, and BMNH museum records have 1946.9.6.85 (formerly 1881.4.9.5) as a syntype, although Fuhrmann specifically noted a ZMB specimen as "Type". The status of these putative syntypes requires verification. Type locality: "Vénézuéla (Caracas)". Synonymy (with Typhlonectes compressicauda natans) by Dunn, 1942, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 91: 535; Wilkinson, 1996, Herpetol. J., 6: 30–31.

Chthonerpeton haydee Roze, 1963, Acta Biol. Venezuelica, 3: 279. Holotype: MBUCV 5356, by original designation. Type locality: "Encontrados, Estado Zulia, Venezuela, en un región pantanosa". Wilkinson, 1988, J. Herpetol., 22: 119–121, suggested possible synonymy with Typhlonectes natans, and Wilkinson, 1996, J. Herpetol., 30: 414, substantiated it.

Typhlonectes compressicauda natans — Roze and Solano, 1963, Acta Biol. Venezuelica, 3: 297.

Nectocaecilia haydee — Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 268.

Typhlonectes venezuelensis — Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 255.

Nectocaecilia cooperi Taylor, 1970, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 48: 845. Holotype: AMNH 82255, by original designation. Type locality: "Río Magdalena at Barranquilla, [Departamento Atlantico,] Colombia". Synonymy by Wilkinson, 1988, J. Herpetol., 22: 119.

Pseudotyphlonectes natans — Lescure, Renous, and Gasc, 1986, Mem. Soc. Zool. France, 43: 170.

English Names

Rio Cauca Caecilian (Typhlonectes natans: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Cooper's American Caecilian (Nectocaecilia cooperi [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Estado Zulia Caecilian (Nectocaecilia haydee [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Caracas Caecilian (Typhlonectes venezuelensis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Distribution

Drainages systems of the Cauca and Magdalena river in western and northern Colombia and around the Maracaibo Bain in northwestern Venezuela; reported (introduction) from Tamiami Canal, Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Colombia, Venezuela

Introduced: United States of America, United States of America - Florida

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Typhlonectes compressicauda by Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 247, where it had been placed by Dunn, 1942, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 91: 535. Lynch, 2000 "1999", Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Exact. Fis. Nat., 23: 334, commented on the distribution in Colombia. See Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 136, for comments on range and literature. Sheehy, Blackburn, Kouete, Gestring, Laurie, Prechtel, Suarez, and Talley, 2021, Reptiles & Amphibians, 28: 355–357, reported an introduced animal from Tamiami Canal, Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA, although whether this represents a population or just the single individual requires confirmation.

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
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For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.