The Salamander That Lives Like a Worm

There is an animal related to the salamander and the frog which looks like a gigantic earthworm and lives an earthworm’s life. It is seen so rarely that probably not one person in a million is aware of its existence.

It is the caecilian, a very ancient creature forming the third branch of the order of amphibians which were probably the first back-boned animals to establish themselves on land nearly 300,000,000 years ago. There are about fifty species. Caecilians are found in most of tropical America, Africa and Asia. They range in length from a few inches to nearly a yard. The larger ones might be mistaken either for titanic earthworms or small snakes. In the physical structure are combined features of both salamanders and frogs.

These amphibians spend all their lives burrowing in the soil. They live chiefly on earthworms and come to the surface only for brief intervals after heavy rains. They usually are seen only by farmers who uncover them while ploughing, or digging ditches. Since they are so easily mistaken for snakes they are avoided, although they are entirely harmless. They have sharp teeth but make no effort to bite when handled.

Most of the caecilians are egg-layers, the large eggs being attached to one another like beads on a string and then wound up in a ball. This is incubated by the mother who coils herself around it. The burrows where the eggs are laid are always on a stream bank since the young, like those of all amphibians, must pass part of their development stage in water. These amphibians probably are fairly abundant animals. Owing to the subterranean life they are nearly, perhaps in some cases completely, blind.

The amphiuma, a species of salamander, also is often mistaken for a snake. It spends most of its life in rivers buried in mud, where it lives on larvae and on fish eggs. Since it is an air-breathing creature it must come to the surface frequently to breath.

The amphiuma has rudimentary legs, almost microscopic in size. This fact alone is enough to differentiate it from the snakes, who always are legless.

This curious salamander is seldom encountered and is barely mentioned in standard textbooks of natural history. Confined to the southeastern United States, it often is considered a highly poisonous animal. Actually it is harmless. Very rarely one is caught on a fishhook. It is so slippery that it is almost impossible to hold in the hand.

The creature has some relatives which are not so secretive in their habits and are much better known. One is the giant salamander of China and Japan, the largest and most active of the race. It makes its home in crevices under rocks in running streams. Another is the “mud puppy” or “hell bender” which sometimes gets on the hooks of fishermen in muddy streams.

The amphiuma is a degenerate member of the family. It has almost lost its legs. It still retains its eyes, but these have become very small. The animal can have very little use for them.

In India is found a wormlike caecilian, Ichthyopis, which lives under stones and burrows after the fashion of earthworms. Superficially it differs from an earthworm by its darker color. Its body is coated with slime and it leaves a trail of mucous behind it when it crawls.

The earth snake Silybura is found in the same region. It usually is mistaken for a worm, especially by birds to their own discomfort and sometimes disaster. It ties itself in loops around a bird’s feet and these loops are quite difficult to loosen. Among natives there is a superstition that if it coils around a child’s finger the only way to get rid of it is to amputate the member.