''Boulengerula fischeri'' is a species of

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics of ...

in the family

Herpelidae Herpelidae are a family of caecilians, sometimes known as the African caecilians. They are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Like other caecilians, they superficially resemble worms or snakes. They are the sister group to the newly discovered Chikili ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

and only known from around its type locality near

Cyangugu Cyangugu (formerly Shangugu) is a city and capital of the Rusizi District in Western Province, Rwanda. The city lies at the southern end of Lake Kivu, and is contiguous with Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, but separated from it by the Ru ...

, southwestern Rwanda. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''fischeri'' honours Eberhard Fischer, a German botanist who has worked with Rwandan fauna and flora. Common name Fischer's African caecilian has been coined for it. Live animals have the appearance of "live pink spaghetti".

Description

Adult males measure and adult females in total length. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is an immature female in total length. The heaviest specimens weighs nearly . The body is very slender, with a maximum body width of . There are 183–205 primary annuli. Colouration is pinkish, with the head and neck and the posterior few centimeters of the body a brighter pink than the midbody, or a paler pink head, vivid pink anteriorly, and the body becoming more lavender posteriorly.

Habitat and conservation

''Boulengerula fischeri'' is known from primary

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

and small-holder farmland adjacent to the forest at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It lives in the soil, occasionally on the ground under leaf litter or plant stems. If similar to other ''Boulengerula'', it would be

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

and have direct development (no free-living larvae). This species is locally abundant and tolerates some habitat modification. It could be threatened by deforestation and agricultural intensification, including the use of

agrochemical An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical refers to biocides ( pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicides) an ...

s. The area of the type locality is now included in the Nyungwe Forest National Park.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1942215 fischeri Endemic fauna of Rwanda Amphibians of Rwanda Amphibians described in 1994 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Ronald Archie Nussbaum