Fig. 15.–Ichthyophis glutinosa × 1. (After P. and F. Sarasin.) 1, A nearly ripe embryo, with gills, tail-fin, and still with a considerable amount of yolk; 2, female guarding her eggs, coiled up in a hole underground; 3, a bunch of newly laid eggs; 4, a single egg, enlarged, schematised to show the twisted albuminous strings or chalazae within the outer membrane, which surrounds the white of the egg.
The external gills are delicately fringed and red, and they move up and down in the fluid of the egg. The body of the embryo is at first white, but becomes pigmented with dark grey. A strong line of lateral sense-organs is formed, and a ring of them lies around the eye and others on other parts of the head. The short tail develops a fin. Of the three pairs of gills the third is the shortest, and is generally turned dorsalwards. In embryos of 4 cm. in length the longest gill measures as much as 2 cm. Yolk is still present in embryos which have reached the surprising length of 7 cm. Then the gills begin to shrink a little, and at this time one pair of gill-clefts breaks through at the base of the third external gill.
When the larvae are hatched the gills are lost. The young larva takes to the water in a gill-less state, and moves about like an eel. At the bottom of the gill-hole on each side two arches are visible, and there are at this stage neither inner nor outer gills. The larvae frequently come up to the surface to breathe. The eyes are large and clearly visible, but the tentacles are still undeveloped. The epidermal sense-organs are numerous, and appear as white spots in the grey skin; about fifty extend from the gill-opening to the tip of the tail.
Ichthyophis seems to live a long time in the larval state. At last the gill-clefts close, the tail-fin disappears, and the tentacles come to the surface. The whole skin assumes a totally new structure, and the fish-like larva turns into a burrowing, subterranean creature so terrestrial that it gets drowned when made to remain in the water.
Hypogeophis.–According to A. Brauer[[44]] three species of Coecilians are found in the Seychelles: Cryptopsophis multiplicatus, which is rare, Hypogeophis rostratus and H. alternans. They live in moist ground, near the coast in swamps, higher up in humus, under rotten trees and rocks, down to the depth of one foot. In the island of Silhouette, Brauer found them in brooks, at least during the dry season, from May to September. The natives call them "vers de terre." They seem to propagate during the greater part of the year, provided there is sufficient moisture. The female coils round the eggs, which vary from half a dozen to thirty in number, those of H. rostratus measuring 7-8 mm., those of H. alternans only 4-5 mm.
The embryos undergo their whole development in the egg. Four pairs of gill-clefts break through, the first between the hyoid and the first branchial arch, the fourth between the third and fourth branchial arches. There appears also a spiracular cleft between the quadrate and the hyoid arch; this cleft is, however, only developed dorsally, and persists for a shorter time. The external gills appear at the same time as the clefts, upon the first three branchial arches; the third gill is the latest, and remains in a vestigial condition covered up by the two others. The gills, of which the second is the longest, are not (as stated by the Sarasins) direct prolongations of the gill-arches, but they begin as button-like growths upon the arches. They begin to disappear with the absorption of the yolk, getting actually smaller. In embryos of 6 cm. they are 6 mm. long, while in embryos of 6.5 cm. they are reduced to 4.5 mm. in length. The first to disappear is the third gill, of course by being resorbed; and the clefts are closed before the creature leaves the egg. Hypogeophis not leading an aquatic larval life possesses no tail-fin in the embryonic state, the gill-holes are closed, and the epidermal sensory organs disappear long before the time of hatching.
Vestiges of gills appear also on the hyoid and on the mandibular arch, but on the latter they are of very short duration. Those of the hyoid gradually fuse with the first of the branchial gills, and these also concentrate with their bases so that they ultimately seem to spring from one common stem. Brauer remarks that the distinction between internal and external gills seems to be one of degree only; the hyoidean and mandibular gills namely start from the hinder margin of the arches, just like the internal gills of Torpedo according to Ziegler, while the other gills start from the sides of the branchial arches. He also found a pair of little swellings behind the last gill-cleft, and an unpaired swelling (corresponding with a double one in Ichthyophis) in front of the vent. Not unreasonably he sees in these swellings the last, very transitional vestiges of the paired limbs.
Typhlonectes compressicauda of Guiana and Venezuela is one of the largest Coecilians, reaching a length of 18 inches, with a body-diameter of ¾ inch. The general colour, as in most of these creatures, is olive brown to black. A sort of adhesive disc surrounding the vent occurs in this genus. Peters, who described this species, found in one female six embryos of comparatively enormous size, one of them being 157 mm. (more than 6 inches) long, and 12 mm. thick, and devoid of a tail-fin. Instead of lateral gill-openings there is a "bag" on each side 55 mm. long, upon which is distributed a blood-vessel. The Sarasins have examined the same specimen: The gills are not a bag, but consist of two flat, unbroken membranes which are closely connected with each other. In fact the outer gills of all Amphibia may be said to begin in the shape of small bags, whence sprout secondarily the gill-fringes; but in Typhlonectes they form these flaps instead of growing into the usual three gills. The embryos have no epidermal sense-organs, but plenty of skin-glands. Probably when born they take at once to terrestrial life, the flaps are possibly shed at birth, and there remains a little cicatrix.
Dermophis thomensis of West Africa (its other relations live in East Africa, South and Central America) is also viviparous.