#microcaecilia

[herpsandbirds]

Pale-headed Caecilian (Microcaecilia albiceps), family Siphonopidae, found in the Amazonian lowlands and slopes of the eastern Andes in Colombia and Ecuador.

Caecilians are amphibians, like frogs and salamanders. (They are not worms, nor are they snakes).

Most species are fossorial.

photograph by Paul Freed

[herpsandbirds]

"Skin-eating" Caecilians (Microcaecilia dermatophaga), family Siphonopidae, French Guiana

The species in this genus are so named, because the young feed on the outer layer of skin of their mother. This does not appear to injure the mother. She regrows the outer layer of skin continuously, as she cares for her offspring.

Caecilians are amphibians, like frogs and salamanders.

photographs via: Wilkinson et al. (2013)