A key in a different format is presented for the tadpoles of the United States and Canada. More details of ontogenetic variation are included than in many keys and more attention is paid to identifying species by using characteristics of living tadpoles.

Our fieldwork in Vietnam for the past four years has resulted in the discovery of numerous new species and records of amphibians and reptiles, including what appear to be possible new species of caecilians. In order to identify the taxa from northern Vietnam, it has been necessary to translate a number of Chinese publications into English. Below we provide a translation of the original description of Ichthyophis bannanicus Yang (1984. The Discovery and Description of the New Species Ichthyophis bannanica. Acta Herpetol. Sinica 3[2]:73-75). The original description is in Chinese, along with an English abstract containing a diagnosis; the description was not presented in English. Below we provide a near-literal translation of the original description. We have also included the English abstract for completeness. In doing so, we note the discrepancy between the original English title provided by Yang, and that of the literal translation.
Translation of this article was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grant A3148 to R.W. Murphy. This publication is contribution 115 from the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Royal Ontario Museum.