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

Scolecomorphus kirkii Boulenger, 1883

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Scolecomorphidae > Genus: Scolecomorphus > Species: Scolecomorphus kirkii

Scolecomorphus Kirkii Boulenger, 1883, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, 11: 48. Holotype: BMNH 1946.9.5.58 (formerly 1882.1.6.23), according to Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 643. Type locality: "East Africa . . . . probably from the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika". See note on type locality by Loveridge, 1953, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 110: 350.

Scolecomorphus convexus Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 637. Holotype: ZMH A00268 (formerly 1358), according to Hallermann, 1998, Mitt. Hamburg. Zool. Mus. Inst., 95: 200. Type locality: "Uhehe, Deutsch-Ost-Afrikas,.. . a district in south central Tanganyika [= Tanzania] in the Southern Highlands, south of the Ruahi [=Ruaha] River". Synonymy by Nussbaum, 1985, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 713: 15.

Scolecomorphus kirkii kirkii — Stevens, 1974, Arnoldia, Zimbabwe, 6: 5.

English Names

Lake Tanganyika Caecilian (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 26).

Kirk's Caecilian (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 382).

Distribution

Mountains of southern Malawi through the Ubena and Mahenge highlands to the Serra Mecula (Niass Province), Mount Mabu and Mount Namuli (Zambezi Province) , northern Mozambique, to the Nguru, Uluguru, Mahenga, Udzungwa, and North Pare mountains in Tanzania, 500 to 1840 m elevation; presumably in intervening areas.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania

Comment

See accounts by Loveridge, 1933, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 74: 350; and Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 382–383; and Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 350–351. Loader, Poynton, and Mariaux, 2004, Afr. Zool., 39: 71–76, provided a record for Mahenga Mountain in Tanzania. Gower, Rasmussen, Loader, and Wilkinson, 2004, Afr. J. Ecol., 42: 83–87, provided a record for the Undzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 306, provided an account for Malawi. Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 310–311, provided a brief account and photograph. Farooq and Conradie, 2015, Herpetol. Notes, 8: 59–62, provided a record for northern Mozambique and discussed the range. Conradie, Bittencourt-Silva, Engelbrecht, Loader, Menegon, Nanvonamuquitxo, Scott, and Tolley, 2016, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 92: 163–180, reported populations from Mounts Mabu and Namuli, Zambezia Province, Mozambique. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 32–33, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map.

External links:

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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
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.