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

Schistometopum thomense (Barboza du Bocage, 1873)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Dermophiidae > Genus: Schistometopum > Species: Schistometopum thomense

Siphonops thomensis Barboza du Bocage, 1873, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, 4 (15): 224. Syntypes: MBL (2 specimens); destroyed by fire in 1978; ZMB 8738 likely the only surviving syntype according to Bauer, Good, and Günther, 1993, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 69: 287, although this considered unlikely to be a syntype by Bell, Ceríaco, Scheinberg, and Drewes, 2022, in Ceríaco et al. (eds.), Biodiversity Gulf Guinea Islands: 487. Type locality: "l'Ile Saint Thomé" = São Tomé island.

Siphonops brevirostris Peters, 1874, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1874: 617. Holotype: ZMB 4911, not ZMB 4711 as noted in the original publication; see discussion by Bauer, Good, and Günther, 1993, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 69: 287). Type locality: "Westküste Afrikas (Guinea)"; restricted by Gorham, 1962, Das Tierreich, 78: 16, to "Rolas Island", São Tomé and Principe. Synonymy by Nussbaum and Pfrender, 1998, Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 187: 1-32.

Dermophis brevirostris — Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 937.

Dermophis thomensis — Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 938.

Schistometopum thomense — Parker, 1941, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 11, 7: 17.

Schistometopum brevirostris — Taylor, 1965, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 46: 299.

Schistometopum brevirostre — Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 664.

Common Names

Sao Tome Caecilian (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 24).

São Thomé Caecilian (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 15).

Island Caecilian (Schistometopum brevirostre: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 24).

Distribution

Northern half of São Tomé I., São Tomé and Principe, Gulf of Guinea to over 1000 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: São Tomé and Principe

Endemic: São Tomé and Principe

Comment

Measey and Van Dongen, 2006, Evol. Ecol. Res., 8: 55-68, discussed aspects of geographic variation (then in the sense of including Schistometopum ephele). Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 34–35, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map (then in the sense of including Schistometopum ephele). O'Connell, Prates, Scheinberg, Mulder, and Bell, 2021, Mol. Ecol., 30: 2859–2871, partitioned out Schistometopum ephele, noting a hybrid zone wth Schistometopum thomense in the central part of the island. Bell, Ceríaco, Scheinberg, and Drewes, 2022, in Ceríaco et al. (eds.), Biodiversity Gulf Guinea Islands: 485–490, summarized the literature and systematics of the species. Ceríaco, Marques, Sousa, Veríssimo, Beja, and Ferreira, 2023, ZooKeys, 1168: 41–75, included this species in a report, key, and DNA barcode reference library for the amphibians of São Tomé and Príncipe.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
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
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist