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

Chthonerpeton indistinctum (Reinhardt and Lütken, 1862)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Gymnophiona > Family: Typhlonectidae > Genus: Chthonerpeton > Species: Chthonerpeton indistinctum

Siphonops indistinctus Reinhardt and Lütken, 1862 "1861", Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., Ser. 2, 3: 203. Type(s): ZMUC by original designation; ZMUC R 0235 designated lectotype by Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 299; ZUMC R 0234, the former cotype, is now the holotype of Chthonerpeton braestrupi. Type locality: "Buenos Ayres", Argentina.

Chthonerpeton indistinctum — Peters, 1880 "1879", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1879: 940.

Chthonerpeton corrugatum Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 289. Holotype: ZMH A00265 (formerly 1930), according to Wilkinson and Nussbaum, 1988, Herpetol. J., 1: 245. Type locality: see original publication for discussion as well as discussion by Wilkinson and Nussbaum, 1988, Herpetol. J., 1: 245-246, whco suggested that the type locality can be considered "Brazil". Synonymy by Nussbaum and Wilkinson, 1987, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 716: 1.

Chthonerpeton erugatum Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 295. Holotype: ZMUC 0238, by original designation. Type locality: Unknown; museum records provide "South Brasil" (personal commun., H. Kristensen, 24 Nov. 2010). Synonymy by Nussbaum and Wilkinson, 1987, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 716: 1.

Chthonerpeton hellmichi Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 305. Holotype: ZSM 1/1964, according to Glaw and Franzen, 2006, Spixiana, München, 29: 156. Type locality: "Punta Lara", on the Río de La Plata coast, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. ZSM card index gives "Punta Lara, Rio La Plata, Argentina" according to Glaw and Franzen, 2006, Spixiana, München, 29: 156. Provisional synonymy by Nussbaum and Wilkinson, 1987, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 716: 1.

Nectocaecilia fasciata Taylor, 1968, Caecilians of the World: 269. Holotype: MZUT 2817, by original designation. Type locality: "Buenos Aires (state?)", Argentina. Synonymy by Nussbaum and Wilkinson, 1987, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 716: 1-15.

Common Names

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

живородящая червяга (Russian: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 17).

морщинистая червяга (Chthonerpeton corrugatum [no longer recognized]: Russian: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 17).

плоскобрюхая червяга (Chthonerpeton erugatum [no longer recognized]: Russian: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 17).

червяга f Хеллмиха (Chthonerpeton hellmichi [no longer recognized]: Russian: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 17).

Distribution

Parana River from southern Paraguay to its mouth in northeastern Argentina and southern Uruguay; coastal Uruguay north to southeastern Brazil in the states of eastern Santa Catarina and eastern Paraná.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

Comment

See account by Gudynas and Williams, 1992, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 531: 1-2. In the Chthonerpeton indistinctum group of Nussbaum, 1986, Rev. Suisse Zool., 93: 917. Weiler, Núñez, Airaldi, Lavilla, Peris, and Baldo, 2013, Anf. Paraguay: 28, provided a brief account, image, and dot map for Paraguay. Achaval and Olmos, 2003, Anf. Rept. Uruguay, ed. 2: 9, provided a brief account and photograph for Uruguay. Brusquetti and Lavilla, 2006, Cuad. Herpetol., 20: 7, briefly discussed the range in Paraguay. Santos, Pineschi, and Zaher, 2025, Zootaxa, 5728: 561–570, provided a polygon map of the distribution as well as its inclusion in an identification key to the species of the genus. Verrastro and Borges-Martins, 2025, Anf. Rept. Pampa, 2: 103, provided a brief account, photograph, and dot distribution map for the Pampa biome in Brazil (as well as adjacent areas of Uruguay and Paraguay).

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist