JUL 18 !92A 



Vol. 5, p. 93-95. July 9, 1924. 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



NEW AMPHIBIANS FROM PANAMA. 



BY EMMETT R. DUNN. 



Among the material taken last summer (1923) in Panama b}^ 

 C. B. Duryea and myself was a small caecilian which seems to be 

 new. It was found under the following circumstances. We were 

 eating breakfast on the 6th of August, in a palm-thatch hut some 

 distance off the trail between Chiriquicito and Boquete, when 

 one of our guides called attention to a ''snake" which was 

 coming out of the ground under the raised platform on which we 

 slept. It proved to be a caecilian. All efforts to pull it out 

 being fruitless, it was dug from its burrow. With the animal 

 in hand the peculiar small head and thick body explained the 

 difficulty of extrication. The shape of the creature seemed very 

 strange to me, and examination of the available literature and 

 collections has not afforded a parallel. It fits, however, into 

 the recent definition of the genus Siphonops, and serves to add 

 that genus to the fauna of North America. It may be called 



Siphonops parviceps, new species. 



Type. — No. 9407, Museum of Comparative Zoology, from La Loma, on 

 trail from ChiriquI Grande to Boquete, altitude about 2000 feet, Province of 

 Bocas del Toro, Panama. E. R. Uunn and Chester B. Duryea, collectors. 



Diagnosis. — A Siphonops with head much smaller than body in diameter; 

 circular folds extending to anus; primary series all complete, secondary series 

 present. Primaries 96, secondaries 13. 



Description. — Diameter of head 5 mm., diameter of neck 5 mm., posterior 

 angle of mouth to tip of snout 6 mm., diameter of body 8 mm. Primary folds all 

 complete, 96 in number, extending to anus. Secondary folds 13 in number, first 

 three incomplete, interpolated between last 13 primary folds. Maxillary teeth 

 13, palatine teeth 10, mandibular teeth 10. Tentacle between eye and nostril, 

 nearer to lip than to either, slightly nearer to eye than to nostril. Eye nearer 

 to lip than to tentacle; nearer to lip than nostril. Eyes farther apart than 

 length of snout. Black; head lighter, tinged with brown. Length 180 mm., 

 greatest diameter 8 mm., greatest circumference 22 mm. Ratio of length to 

 diameter 22.5; ratio of length to circumference 8. 



Remarks. — This species is a Siphonops as defined by Nieden. 

 It has visible eyes, horseshoe-shaped tentacular groove, no 

 scales, one row of mandibular teeth, and the parietal and squa- 

 mosal are in contact. It differs from described species of Sipho- 



^ Contributions from the Department of Zoology, Smith College, No. 118. 



93 



