CCECILIAN, or C/ECILIAN, limbless amphibians, constituting a family, Cmciiiide or Ceciliide, and an order Apoda or Gymnophionia. They are remarkable for the entire absence of limbs, even the internal limb girdles having disappeared, and the bony roof to the temporal region of the skull. In the lat ter feature they simulate the extinct Stegoce phali, to which sorne zoologists believe them to be rather closely related, though the temporal roof is formed by different bones. The form is worm-like, and, notwithstanding that the number of vertebrw may exceed 200, the tail is very short. A series of annular scales, some what embedded in the skin, protect the body externally, and as a further adaptation to their burrowing habits the eyes are rendered nearly or quite useless by. being buried beneath the skin, the deficiency in sight being compensated by the presence of a pair of nearly unique retractile sensory tentacles.
Some species are viviparoni, others ovipa rous. In the case of the latter the Aemale coils, about the eggs and protects them until hatched, The young of many are noteworthy in the pos session of external gills, while the respiration,of the adults is pulmonary. Their food consists principally of earthworms and subterranean in sect larvm., Dr. Boulenger recognizes 17 genera and 40 species, but probably many remain undiscov, ered. None have been found except in a zone encircling the earth, chiefly within the limits of the tropics; South and Central American spe cies are numerous; but none are certainly known from North America. Consult Boulen ger, 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London) (1895); Sarasin, (Forschungen aid Ceylon' (Vol. II, 1887-90).