Amphiuma

Amphiuma, a North American tailed amphibian, which loses the external gills of its youth. It thus belongs to the caducibranch group of the order Urodela. The form is roughly eel-like, and about 2 feet long; the legs, which are small and distant, have two or three toes; the eyes are covered with skin; and there are numerous teeth. On each side of the somewhat narrowed neck there is a gill slit, partly covered with a fold of skin. This type, like other Derotremata, as they are called, is thus half-way between those amphibians like Proteus (q.v.), which permanently retain their external gills, and those like the newt, in which the gills entirely disappear in the adults, and the clefts close up. A. means is found in the southern and south-western states burrowing in the mud—e.g. in the ditches of the rice-fields. It feeds on small fish, molluscs, and insects. The negroes call it the Congo snake, and erroneously regard it as venomous. Another species (A. tridactyla) is somewhat doubtfully distinct.