Leptotyphlops
Leptotyphlops | |
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Western blind snake, L. humilis | |
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Leptotyphlops
Fitzinger, 1843
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Synonyms | |
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Leptotyphlops is a genus of nonvenomous blind snakes, commonly known as slender blind snakes and threadsnakes,[2] found throughout North and South America, Africa, India and southwestern Asia. Currently, 86 species are recognized.[2]
Contents
Description
Most species look much like shiny earthworms. They are pink or brown, and their scales give them a segmented appearance. Other species are black in color, but have the same general body structure. Their common name comes from the fact that their eyes are greatly reduced almost to the point of uselessness, and hidden behind a protective head scale. The species which are called thread snakes are so named because of their very narrow, long bodies.
Geographic range
Found in the Americas, Africa, India and southwestern Asia. In the Americas from the southwestern United States, south through most of Central and South America as far as Uruguay and Argentina. Also found on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas, in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and in the Lesser Antilles. Also found on Socotra Island.[1]
Behavior
All blind snakes are burrowing snakes, spending most of their time deep in loose soil, typically only emerging when it rains and they get flooded out.
Diet
Their primary diet is ant and termite larvae.
Species
Species[2] | Taxon author[2] | Subsp.*[2] | Common name | Geographic range |
---|---|---|---|---|
L. aethiopicus[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. affinis | (Boulenger, 1884) | 0 | Venezuela blind snake | |
L. albifrons | (Wagler, 1824) | 0 | Wagler's blind snake | |
L. albipunctus | (Jan, 1861) | 0 | Tucuman blind snake | |
L. albiventer | Hallermann & Rödel, 1995 | 0 | ||
L. anthracinus | Bailey, 1946 | 0 | Bailey's blind snake | |
L. asbolepis | Thomas, McDiarmid & F. Thompson, 1985 | 0 | Martin Garcia thread snake | |
L. australis | Freiberg & Orejas-Miranda, 1968 | 0 | Freiberg's blind snake | |
L. bicolor | (Jan, 1860) | 0 | two-colored blind snake | |
L. bilineatus | (Schlegel, 1839) | 0 | two-lined blind snake | |
L. blanfordii | (Boulenger, 1890) | 0 | Sindh thread snake | |
L. borapeliotes | Vanzolini, 1996 | 0 | ||
L. borrichianus | (Degerbøl, 1923) | 0 | Degerbøl's blind snake | |
L. boulengeri | (Boettger, 1913) | 0 | Manda flesh-pink blind snake | |
L. brasiliensis | Laurent, 1949 | 0 | Brazilian blind snake | |
L. bressoni | Taylor, 1939 | 0 | Michoacán slender blind snake | |
L. brevicaudus | (Bocage, 1887) | 0 | ||
L. brevissimus | Shreve, 1964 | 0 | Caqueta blind snake | |
L. broadleyi | Wallach & Hahn, 1997 | 0 | ||
L. breuili | Hedges, 2008 | 0 | St. Lucia threadsnake | |
L. burii | (Boulenger, 1905) | 0 | Arabian blind snake | |
L. cairi | (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844) | 0 | Cairo blind snake | |
L. calypso | Thomas, McDiarmid & F. Thompson, 1985 | 0 | Samana thread snake | |
L. carlae | Hedges, 2008 | 0 | Barbados threadsnake | |
L. collaris | Hoogmoed, 1977 | 0 | collared blind snake | |
L. columbi | Klauber, 1939 | 0 | San Salvador blind snake | |
L. conjunctus | (Jan, 1861) | 3 | Cape thread snake | |
L. cupinensis | Bailey & Carvalho, 1946 | 0 | Mato Grosso blind snake | |
L. debilis | (Chabanaud, 1918) | 0 | West African blind snake | |
L. diaplocius | Orejas-Miranda, 1969 | 0 | common Peru blind snake | |
L. dimidiatus | (Jan, 1861) | 0 | dainty blind snake | |
L. dissimilis | (Bocage, 1886) | 0 | Sudan blind snake | |
L. distanti | (Boulenger, 1892) | 0 | Distant's blind snake | |
L. drewesi | Wallach, 1996 | 0 | Drewes's worm snake | |
L. dugandi | Dunn, 1944 | 0 | Dugand's blind snake | |
L. dulcis | (Baird & Girard, 1853) | 2 | Texas blind snake | |
L. emini | (Boulenger, 1890) | 0 | Emin Pasha's worm snake | |
L. filiformis | (Boulenger, 1899) | 0 | Socotra Island blind snake | |
L. fitzingeri | (Jan, 1861) | 0 | ||
L. gestri | (Boulenger, 1906) | 0 | ||
L. goudotii | (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844) | 3 | black blind snake | |
L. gracilior | (Boulenger, 1910) | 0 | slender thread snake | |
L. guayaquilensis | Orejas-Miranda & G. Peters, 1970 | 0 | Guayaquila blind snake | |
L. hamulirostris | (Nikolsky, 1907) | 0 | ||
L. howelli [3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. humilis | (Baird & Girard, 1853) | 8 | Western thread snake | |
L. incognitus[3] | Broadley & Watson, 1976 | |||
L. jacobseni [3] | Broadley & S. Broadley, 1999 | |||
L. joshuai | Dunn, 1944 | 0 | Joshua's blind snake | |
L. kafubi [3] | (Boulenger, 1919) | |||
L. keniensis[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. koppesi | Amaral, 1955 | 0 | Amaral's blind snake | |
L. labialis | (Sternfeld, 1908) | 0 | Damara thread snake | |
L. latirostris[3] | (Sternfeld, 1912) | |||
L. leptepileptus | Thomas, McDiarmid & F. Thompson, 1985 | 0 | Haitian border thread snake | |
L. longicaudus | (W. Peters, 1854) | 0 | long-tailed thread snake | |
L. macrolepis | (W. Peters, 1857) | 0 | big-scaled blind snake | |
L. macrops | Broadley & Wallach, 1996 | 0 | large-eyed worm snake | |
L. macrorhynchus | (Jan, 1860) | 0 | long-nosed worm snake | |
L. macrurus | (Boulenger, 1903) | 0 | Boulenger's blind snake | |
L. maximus | Loveridge, 1932 | 0 | giant blind snake | |
L. mbanjensis[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. melanotermus | (Cope, 1862) | 0 | Latin American blind snake | |
L. melanurus | Schmidt & Walker, 1943 | 0 | dark blind snake | |
L. merkeri [3] | (F. Werner, 1909) | |||
L. munoai | Orejas-Miranda, 1961 | 0 | ||
L. narirostris | (W. Peters, 1867) | 1 | ||
L. nasalis | Taylor, 1940 | 0 | Taylor's blind snake | |
L. natatrix | (Andersson, 1937) | 0 | Gambia blind snake | |
L. nicefori | Dunn, 1946 | 0 | Santander blind snake | |
L. nigricansT | (Schlegel, 1839) | 0 | black thread snake | |
L. nigroterminus[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. nursii | (Anderson, 1896) | 0 | Nurse's blind snake | |
L. occidentalis | FitzSimons, 1962 | 0 | Western thread snake | |
L. pembae[3] | Loveridge, 1941 | |||
L. perreti | Roux-Estève, 1979 | 0 | ||
L. peruvianus | Orejas-Miranda, 1969 | 0 | Peru blind snake | |
L. pitmani [3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. pungwensis[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 1997 | |||
L. pyrites | Thomas, 1965 | 0 | Thomas's blind snake | |
L. reticulatus | (Boulenger, 1906) | 0 | reticulate blind snake | |
L. rostratus | (Bocage, 1886) | 0 | Bocage's blind snake | |
L. rubrolineatus | (F. Werner, 1901) | 0 | red-lined blind snake | |
L. rufidorsus | Taylor, 1940 | 0 | rose blind snake | |
L. salgueiroi | Amaral, 1955 | 0 | Espírito Santo blind snake | |
L. scutifrons | (W. Peters, 1854) | 0 | Peters' thread snake | |
L. septemstriatus | (Schneider, 1801) | 0 | seven-striped blind snake | |
L. signatus | (Jan, 1861) | 0 | South American blind snake | |
L. striatulus | H.M. Smith & Laufe, 1945 | 0 | ||
L. subcrotillus | Klauber, 1939 | 0 | Klauber's blind snake | |
L. sundewalli | (Jan, 1861) | 0 | Sundevall's worm snake | |
L. sylvicolus[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 1997 | |||
L. tanae[3] | Broadley & Wallach, 2007 | |||
L. teaguei | Orejas-Miranda, 1964 | 0 | Northern blind snake | |
L. telloi | Broadley & Watson, 1976 | 0 | Tello's thread snake | |
L. tesselatus | (Tschudi, 1845) | 0 | Tschudi's blind snake | |
L. tricolor | Orejas-Miranda & Zug, 1974 | 0 | three-colored blind snake | |
L. undecimstriatus | (Schlegel, 1839) | 0 | eleven-striped blind snake | |
L. unguirostris | (Boulenger, 1902) | 0 | Southern blind snake | |
L. variabilis | (Scortecci, 1928) | 0 | ||
L. vellardi | Laurent, 1984 | 0 | ||
L. weyrauchi | Orejas-Miranda, 1964 | 0 | Argentine blind snake | |
L. wilsoni | Hahn, 1978 | 0 | Wilson's blind snake |
*) Not including the nominate subspecies.
T) Type species.
Taxonomy
Two new species, L. breuili from Saint Lucia and L. carlae from the Caribbean island of Barbados, were described by Hedges (2008). At only 10 cm (4 in), L. carlae is believed to be slightly smaller than L. bilineatus, and thus to be the world's smallest snake.[4]
See also
- List of leptotyphlopid species and subspecies
- Leptotyphlopidae by common name
- Leptotyphlopidae by taxonomic synonyms
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 "Leptotyphlops" . The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
- ↑ Hedges SB. 2008. At the lower size limit in snakes: two new species of threadsnakes (Squamata, Leptotyphlopidae, Leptotyphlops) from the Lesser Antilles. Zootaxa 1841: 1-30. (Leptotyphlops carlae, new species, pp. 5-9, Figure 1A). PDF at Zootaxa. Accessed 28 July 2008.
External links
Wikispecies has information related to: Leptotyphlops |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. |
- Leptotyphlops at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 29 August 2007.