β. Quadrato-jugal separated from parietal.
Bdellophis, 1 species, East Africa.
B. Eyes below the cranial bones.
a. Two series of teeth. Quadrato-jugal and parietal in contact; tentacle behind and below nostril.
Gegenophis, 1 species, India.
b. One series of teeth. Quadrato-jugal separated from parietal.
Scolecomorphus, 1 species, East Africa.
Boulengerula, 1 species, East Africa.
Ichthyophis glutinosa extends from the slopes of the Himalayas to Ceylon, the Malay islands, and into Siam. A second species, I. monochrous, occurs in Malabar, Malacca, Borneo, and Java. I. glutinosa reaches about one foot in length, with a greatest thickness of a little more than half an inch. The general colour is dark brown or bluish black, with a yellow band along each side of the body.
This species has been studied extensively by the Sarasins.[[43]] It breeds in Ceylon after the spring monsoon. The ovarian egg is oval, measuring 9 by 6 mm. The yolk is yellow; the blastoderm lies towards one of the poles. The strong vitelline membrane becomes surrounded in the oviduct by a dense albuminous membrane, which forms twisted chalazae, just like those of birds' eggs, and by these two cords the eggs are strung together. Around all this lies another mantle of albumen. The female digs a hole close to the surface in moist ground near running water, and there lays about two dozen eggs. The egg-strings become glued together, entangled into a bunch, and the female coils herself round the bunch and remains in that position, probably to protect the eggs against other burrowing creatures, as blind snakes (Typhlops and Rhinophis) and certain limbless lizards, with which the ground literally swarms. During this kind of incubation the eggs assume a round shape, and grow to twice their original size, and the mature embryo weighs four times as much as the newly laid egg.