Taxonomic status of the Guyanese endemic caecilian Caecilia pressula Taylor, 1968 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae)

Abstract

C to many other herpetological taxa, caecilian taxonomy can be challenging. Lack of limbs, and of well-developed eyes and tails limits the number of taxonomic characters, and the relative rarity of many caecilian species in scientific collections limits understanding of variation. Consequently, species limits are sometimes poorly understood. Taxonomic uncertainty is a major reason given for the data deficient conservation status of many caecilian species in the IUCN red list. The caecilian species Caecilia pressula Taylor, 1968 is one of 13 species of the Neotropical Caecilia Linnaeus, 1758 described by Taylor (1968) in his revision of caecilian taxonomy. The description of C. pressula was based on seven specimens in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH 4947049076) that were collected from the Marudi Mountains of Guyana by R. Snedigar in 1938 during the TerryHolden Expedition (htt ps://siarchives.si.edu/collections/ auth_exp_fbr_eace0098). A single adult male, AMNH A-49475, was designated the holotype and six much smaller and no doubt much younger specimens were designated as paratypes. These specimens were previously considered by Dunn (1942) and Parker & Dunn (1964) to be specimens of the type species of its https://doi.org/10.33256/hj30.4.227229