Koh Tao Island caecilian

The Koh Tao Island caecilian, Ichthyophis kohtaoensis, is a species of amphibian in the family Ichthyophiidae found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, swamps, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, plantations, rural gardens, urban areas, heavily degraded former forests, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land.

Koh Tao Island caecilian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Gymnophiona
Clade: Apoda
Family: Ichthyophiidae
Genus: Ichthyophis
Species:
I. kohtaoensis
Binomial name
Ichthyophis kohtaoensis
Taylor, 1960
Koh Tao Island caecilian range

The scientific name refers to Ko Tao Island in the Gulf of Siam, where the type specimen was collected.


The mitotic karyotypes of both the female and male Koh Tao caecilians have 21 pairs of chromosomes, although in a study performed by Nussbaum and Treisman, it was found that there was an inconsistent report of chromosomes. While they all may have the 21 chromosome pairs, there was a study that found they have 18 metacentric, 4 submetacentric, and 20 telocentric chromosomes while another study had found 16 metacentric, 6 submetacentric, and 20 telocentric chromosomes in the caecilians (Patawang et al. 2016). The conclusion that Ichthyophis genus is a karyologically conserved taxa when it comes to looking at the chromosome numbers.

References
  1. IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2021). "Ichthyophis kohtaoensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T59623A55068895. Retrieved 15 November 2021.

2. Patawang, I., Pinthong, K., Phimphan, S. et al. Karyological characteristics of the Koh Tao caecilian, Ichthyophis kohtaoensis (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae) by conventional staining and Ag-NOR banding techniques. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 27, 597–602 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0534-6


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