Heterogenity of the family Caeciliidae

Abstract

The author shows that the post-frontal bone, free in the Ichthyophidae, is fused with the squamosal in other Caecilians, except in Caecilia and Oscaecilia, where it is fused with the maxillar. Therefore the family Caeciliidae must be reduced to those genera and the bulk of the group must be named Dermophiidae, in which two subfamilies can be recognized: 1) the neotropical Dermophiinae, devoided of splenial teeth, except Gymmopsis, which kept two pairs of them, and 2) the Old World Herpelinae, provided with splenial teeth, except Boulengerula, which lost them.