Over a century after it was first collected, Edward Harrison Taylor studied this and other specimens of caecilians, which are legless amphibians that resemble snakes.

Taylor concluded that this was a new species and named it Ichthyophis singaporensis from whence the specimen originated.

Cantor found the specimen to differ from I. paucisulcus, but did not find conclusive data to designate it as a new species.

He included three specimens collected from Peninsular Malaysia as part of I. singaporensis.

No live photographs exist of I. singaporensis, but Taylor provides a radiographic image of the specimen.