Caecilia subnigricans Dunn, 1942

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Caeciliidae > Genus: Caecilia > Species: Caecilia subnigricans

Caecilia subnigricans Dunn, 1942, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 91: 511. Holotype: ANSP 4921; not 4821 as stated in the description, according to Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 435. Type locality: "Magdalena River, Colombia".

Common Names

Magdalena Valley Caecilian (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 23).

оливковая червяга (Russian: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 13).

Distribution

Known from the Caribbean Coast and Magdalena Valley, Departaments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, Magdalena, and Sucre, Colombia, ranging from 10–150 m, and (questionably, see comment) from Falcón state in northern Venezuela, and Táchira Department, Colombia.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Colombia

Likely/Controversially Present: Venezuela

Endemic: Colombia

Comment

Lynch, 2000 "1999", Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Exact. Fis. Nat., 23: 328, commented on systematics and distribution. See map provided by Acosta-Galvis, Torres, and Pulido-Santacruz, 2019, ZooKeys, 884: 138. Fernández-Roldán and Lynch, 2023, Zootaxa, 5270: 204–205, discussed the range and rejected previously published records from Departamento Nariño, Colombia (Lynch, 2000 "1999"), Departamento Cauca (Pisso-Florez, Silva-Velasco, Maya, Vanegas-Guerrero, and González-Durán, 2018, Rev. Nov. Colombiana, 2), which they tenatively reassigned to Caecilia guntheri. Fernández-Roldán and Lynch, 2025, Rev. Latinoam. Herpetol., 8(3: e984): 148–168, discussed and amended the diagnosis and suggested that the Venezuelan record from Riecito, Falcón, Venezuela, is not Caecilia subnigricans but more likely an unnamed species. They also suggested that the the individuals obtained by Péfaur, Sierra, and Godoy, 1987, J. Herpetol., 21: 335–337, from Embalse La Honda, Táchira, Colombia, could likely be the recently described Caecilia epicrionopsoides. They provided more extensive discussion of the history of Caecilia taxonomy in Colombia and the challenges remaining. 

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