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

Amphiuma Garden, 1821

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Amphiumidae > Genus: Amphiuma

3 species

Amphiuma Garden in Smith, 1821, Select. Correspond. Linnaeus, 1: 333, 599. Type species: Amphiuma means Garden, 1821, by monotypy.

Chrysodonta Mitchill, 1822, Am. Med. Recorder, 5: 503. Type species: Chrysodonta larvaeformis Mitchill, 1822 (= Amphiuma means Garden, 1821), by monotypy. Synonymy by Cuvier, 1827, Mem. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 14: 2; Harlan, 1827, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 5: 317; Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 209; Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 97; Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 55; Duméril, Bibron, and Duméril, 1854, Erp. Gen., 9: 201.

Sirenoidis Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept.: 34. Type species: Amphiuma didactylum Cuvier, 1827 (= Amphiuma means Garden, 1821), by monotypy. Synonymy by Gray, 1850, Cat. Spec. Amph. Coll. Brit. Mus., Batr. Grad.: 54; Ryder, 1879, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1879: 14-15.

Muraenopsis Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept.: 34. Type species: Amphiuma tridactylum Cuvier, 1827, by monotypy. Synonymy by Ryder, 1879, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1879: 14-15.

Myraenopsis — Agassiz, 1846, Nomencl. Zool., Fasc. 12: 245. Unjustified emendation of Muraenopsis Fitzinger, 1843.

English Names

Amphiumas (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 174; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 4; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 27; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 14; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 5; Tilley, Highton, and Wake, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 24; Highton, Bonett, and Jockusch, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 23).

Two-toad Congo Snakes (Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 197).

Distribution

Southeastern USA.

Comment

See detailed accounts of the genus and species by Salthe, 1973, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 147: 1–4, and Petranka, 1998, Salamand. U.S. Canada: 131–138. Bonett, Chippindale, Moler, Van Devender, and Wake, 2009, PLoS One, 5: e5615 (1–10), reported on phylogenetics of the genus, including related fossil taxa in the family, and discussed the evolution of large body size. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, suggested a phylogenetic tree of the three species. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 98–99, provided an account of larval morphology. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 497–501, provided species accounts, summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map).

Contained taxa (3 sp.):

Amphiuma means Garden, 1821

Amphiuma pholeter Neill, 1964

Amphiuma tridactylum Cuvier, 1827

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