A Spanish-language species account can be found at the website of Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio).

Gymnophis multiplicata is found in tropical forests of countries along the equator. This includes Central and South America, Central Africa, and Southern Asia.

Biogeographic Regions: oriental (Native ); ethiopian (Native ); neotropical (Native )

Countries

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama

The most distinguishing characteristic of all caecilians is their limbless, worm-like bodies. This caecilian reaches about 30 centimeters, or one foot, in length and is dark purple, almost black, in color with about 100 or so grooves encircling its body. It has very tiny eyes with sensory tentacles, each between one eye and one nostril. This tentacle can retract when it is not in use. It also has well-developed jaws and teeth, which distinguishes it from a very large earthworm. Caecilians also have scales embedded in their skin.

Adult

Species description based on Savage (2002).  A medium-sized caecilian (to 480 mm total length). The body is rather robust.

Dorsal

The dorsal color is purplish-grey.

Distinguishing characteristics

The color of the annular grooves is not distinct from rest of the body.  Number of primary annuli: 112-133  Number of secondary annuli: 84-117  Total annuli: 199-250

Eye

The eyes are not visible.

• Terrestrial

Gymnophis multiplicata is found in tropical forests burrowing up to three meters below ground.

Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; rainforest

Habitat

Lowland and premontane forest to 1400 m. Also found in grassy areas.

This Caecilian’s diet ranges from worms, caterpillars, termites, and small burrowing snakes that it catches while burrowing through the earth.

Diet

The diet consists of the soft larval stages of many arthropods (Wake 1983).

Ecology

Gymnopis multiplicata lives underground (Savage 2002). It is sometimes encountered during the day under rocks or fallen logs (Savage 2002). At night, they may be encountered foraging along the forest floor (Savage 2002).

Egg

A female will produce between 2 and 10 young at a time (Wake 1980). Eggs are retained within the mother's oviduct (Wake 1980). Once embryos have exhausted their yolk supply, they hatch to feed on nutritive secretions produced by the mother (Wake 1980).

The sexes look alike externally. The male, unlike the other amphibians, have a concealed organ for the direct passage of semen into the body of the female. After internal fertilization, the larvae are born in water and have external gills, which they lose at metamorphosis into adults. At this point, they can drown if they remain underwater.

Because caecilians are not well-studied, their risk of extinction is not known. However, they may be affected by rain forest destruction.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern