''Uraeotyphlus oommeni'', sometimes known as the Oommen's caecilian, Oommen's Uraeotyphlus, or Bonnacord caecilian, 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

Ichthyophiidae The Ichthyophiidae are the family of Asiatic tailed caecilians or fish caecilians found in South and Southeast Asia as well as southernmost China. They are primitive caecilians, lacking many of the derived characters found in the other families ...

. Within ''Uraeotyphlus'', it belongs to the '' U. malabaricus'' group showing no obvious external differentiation between primary and higher-order annuli. This species 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 ...

to the Western Ghats and only known from its type locality, Bonaccord,

Thiruvananthapuram district Thiruvananthapuram District (), is the southernmost district in the Indian state of Kerala. The district was created in 1949, with its headquarters in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, which is also Kerala's administrative centre. The present d ...

, southern

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Very little is known about this species known only from a single specimen collected from an imprecise location.

Etymology

The specific name ''oommeni'' honours Oommen V. Oommen, professor of zoology at the

University of Kerala University of Kerala, formerly the University of Travancore, is a state-run public university located in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chit ...

Description

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 a mature female measuring in total length and wide at mid-body. There are 207 (left side) and 214 (right side) annuli, without clear external differentiation between primary and higher-order annuli. The body is strongly dorsoventrally compressed. The head is small and pointed. The eyes are clearly visible. The preserved specimen has lilac-brown anterior part of the body, becoming paler towards the head. The darker dorsal colouration grades through lighter brown to cream-tan ventrally.

Habitat and conservation

The precise location where this species was collected on the Bonaccord estate in 1987 is unknown. It is probably similar to other members of the genus, which are oviparous, lay terrestrial eggs, and are subterranean as adults. Threats to this species are unknown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3061125 oommeni Amphibians of India Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Amphibians described in 2007