''Ichthyophis'' is a genus of

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians ...

s (limbless amphibians, sometimes called the Asian caecilians) found in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, the southern

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, and the western Indo-Australian Archipelago. In Sri Lanka, three species occur. All are found in almost all habitats, but are known to prefer moist ones. The most common is ''Ichthyophis glutinosus'', which is found in almost all altitudes; the others are ''I. orthoplicatus'', which is found in similar habitat to ''I. glutinosus'', but will not be found in lowlands below above sea level; and ''I. pseudangularis'', found in lowlands below ASL. A new species was recently discovered called '' Ichthyophis multicolor''.

Species

References

* * AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. eb application 2008. Berkeley, California
''Ichthyophis''
AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. (Accessed: August 13, 2008). * {{Authority control Amphibians of Asia Amphibian genera Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger