328 On a West-African Apodal Batrachian. 



lines of punctures on the elytra, and in the more strongly 

 produced external apical angles (when seen from the side). 



The specimens from Dikoya were taken on the Hadley Tea 

 Estate at an elevation of 3800-4200 feet ; those at Kitugalle 

 and Balangoda at an elevation of 1700 feet; those at Boga- 

 wantalawa at 4900-5200 feet ; those on the Horton Plains at 

 6000 feet approximately ; and those at Colombo at sea-level. 



XXXVII. — Note on a West-African Apodal Batrachian 

 hitherto confounded tcith Cecilia seraphini of Aug. Dumeril. 

 By G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S. 



The first-discovered West-African Caecilian was described 

 in 1859 by Aug. Duni<5ril. Several others liave since been 

 added. In the British Museum Catalogue, published in 

 1882, I mainly followed the arrangement proposed shortly 

 before by Peters, whose classification was based on various 

 morphological features unknown in the time of the Dam6rils. 

 Accordingly a specimen from Lagos was referred by me to 

 Hypogeop)his serajyhini, as defined by Peters, whilst a West- 

 African specimen of the genus Urceotyphlus was made the 

 type of a new species, Unvotyphlus africanus. 



Professor Vaillant having lately examined the Apodal 

 Batrachians in the Paris Museum, informs me that A. Dum^ril's 

 Coecilia seraphini does not belong to the genus Hypogeophis^ 

 but to the genus Umeotyphlus^ with which it agrees in the 

 structure of the tentacle, the dentition, and the vacuity 

 between the parietal and squamosal bones, at the same time 

 sending me for the British Museum one of the type specimens 

 of that species. 



I now find that the Hypogeophis seraphini of Peters and 

 myself is not only specifically different from Urceotyphlus 

 seraphini of A. Dumeril, but belongs to a distinct genus, 

 defined below, and that UraiotypMus africanus is tlie same as 

 U. seraphini. 



In a note published in 1880 (Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 

 p. 55) Peters pointed out that his supposed Hypogeophis 

 seraphini (from Cameroon) differs from H. rostratus in the 

 large size of the mandibular teeth, of which there are as many 

 as 14 or 15 in the second row, in this respect agreeing with 

 the specimen from Lagos in the British Museum ; and the 

 new genus Geotrypetes was proposed. After examining the 



