Amphiuma

Amphiuma, a genus of Urodela in which the gills do not persist through life, from the southern United States. They are slender eel-like creatures, with four rudimentary feet, inhabiting the ditches of rice-fields, and feeding on small fish, fresh-water molluscs, and insects. Some forms have two, and others have three digits, and from this character two species have been distinguished, but as the number of digits sometimes varies in the same individual, the distinction is of little importance.