New site record of Ichthyophis kodaguensis Wilkinson et al., 2007 (Amphibia: Ichthyophiidae) in the Western Ghats, Indi

Striped Ichthyophis Fitzinger, 1826 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae) from the Western Ghats of peninsular India in the collection of London's Natural History Museum and their implications for taxonomy and distribution

“…Gower et al 2004). Historical reports of I. beddomei from much further north into Goa and Maharashtra are likely of I. davidi, described in 2011 from northernmost Karnataka (Bhatta et al 2011b), or of one or more, as-yet undescribed species that might remain to be discovered. Of less certain status are reports of I. beddomei from far south of the Palakkad Gap, in southern Kerala and Tamil Nadu states (e.g.…”

“…Among the five currently recognised species of striped Ichthyophis occurring in the Western Ghats, only I. davidi is seemingly not represented among the NHM material. That species is known from around the tri-border between Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra states (Bhatta et al 2011b, Subramanian et al 2013, so its known range lies far (ca. 400 km) to the north of the localities possibly represented by the ten historical NHM specimens discussed here.…”

“…This striped Ichthyophis species has subsequently been documented from further north, along the western escarpment of the Western Ghats of northern Kerala, including Wayanad (Kotharambath et al 2012a) and into nearby southern Karnataka and far north-western Tamil Nadu (Venu et al 2020). Ichthyophis kodaguensis has been reported only from southern Karnataka, from around Kodagu and up to 125 km to the north (Bhatta et al 2011a, Subramanian et al 2013, Venu et al 2021) – it has not been recorded from Kerala or Tamil Nadu. Although the I. kodaguensis specimen BMNH 1882.12.12.1 is from ‘Nilgherries’, that term historically could have included Wayanad (e.g.…”

“…Kotharambath et al 2012aKotharambath et al , b, 2015, some new identification keys have been published (e.g. Giri et al 2003, Bhatta et al 2011b, and phylogenetic relationships for several species have been inferred from DNA sequence data (e.g. , Kotharambath et al 2012a).…”