Mexican slender blind snake

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Mexican slender blind snake
Leptotyphlops humilis.jpg

Mexican slender blind snake ( Rena humilis )

Systematics
without rank: Toxicofera
Subordination : Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily : Blind snake-like (Typhlopoidea)
Family : Slender blind snakes (Leptotyphlopidae)
Genre : Rena
Type : Mexican slender blind snake
Scientific name
Rena humilis
Baird & Girard , 1853

The Mexican slender blind snake ( Rena humilis , Syn . : Leptotyphlops humilis ) is a species of snake from the family of the slender blind snakes (Leptotyphlopidae), which occurs in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico . Nine subspecies are currently recognized. The nominate form is described here.

Names

The scientific name is formed from Greek and Latin components. “Leptotyphlops” consists of the Greek Leptos (λεπτός) “thin” and tyflops (τυφλός) “blind” and ṓps (ὤψ) “eye”, while the species name “humilis” is the Latin name for “low” / “modest”. Colloquial names are "Western slender blind snake", "western threadsnake", "western blind snake".

Synonyms

Stenostoma humile Peters , 1858; Rena dugesii Cope , 1887; Glauconia humilis Boulenger , 1893; Siagonodon humilis Van Denburgh , 1897; Leptotyphlops humilis Ruthven , 1907; Leptotyphlops humilis humilis Klauber , 1931; Leptotyphlops chumilis Rhodes , 1966.

features

Mexican slender blind snakes look like shiny annelids at first glance , but they are not segmented . Adult animals reach a maximum length of 30 cm, including the tail, and a diameter of up to 5 mm. They are pink, purple, or silvery-brown with dark, shimmering scales . The eyes are no more than two dark spots under the scalp. The mouth is small and subordinate. The skull is quite thick to allow digging and the snake has a thorn on its tail that it uses as a lever. The species differs from the closely related Texas slender blind snake ( Rena dulcis ) by the single scales between the eyes (in R. dulcis one prefrontal and two supraoculars ). The Mexican slender blind snake has no teeth in its upper jaw, only the front half of the lower jaw is toothed. (Cochran, 1991; Ernst and Ernst, 2003). These and other types of blind snakes are slightly fluorescent under ultraviolet radiation .

distribution

The species is found in the southwestern United States (southern Florida , Texas , Arizona , Nevada , Utah , California ) and northern Mexico ( Baja California , Sonora , Sinaloa , Nayarit , Jalisco , Colima , Chihuahua , Durango , Coahuila , Tamaulipas , San Luis Potosí ) common.

According to Laurence Monroe Klauber, the type specimen came from “Valliecitas, Cal.” (1931) in the “vicinity of Vallecito, eastern San Diego County, California,” (area of ​​V. in eastern Sandiego County) and from Bayard H. Brattstrom ( 1953) from "the Upper Sonoran Life Zone of the Vallecito area and in Puerto Rico." (Upper Sonoran Life Zone of the area of ​​V. and in Puerto Rico.)

behavior

The blind snakes live most of the time buried in loose soil (up to 20 m deep) or in tunnels of ants and termite burrows.

nutrition

R. humilis' diet mainly consists of termites and ants , as well as their larvae .

Subspecies

Subspecies Authority Common name Geographic range
R. h. boettgeri ( F. Werner , 1899)
R. h. cahuilae Klauber , 1931 Desert blind snake
R. h. dugesii ( Bocourt , 1881)
R. h. humilis ( Baird & Girard , 1853) Southwestern blind snake
R. h. levitoni Murphy , 1975
R. h. lindsayi Murphy, 1975
R. h. segregus Klauber , 1939 Trans-Pecos blind snake
R. h. tenuiculus ( Garman , 1884)
R. h. utahensis V. Tanner , 1938 Utah blind snake

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Mexican slim blind snake in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)Template: ITIS / maintenance / mandatory parameter TSN is missing
  2. ^ A b Hobart Muir Smith , ED Brodie Jr .: Reptiles of North America: A Guide to Field Identification . New York: Golden Press 1982. ISBN 0-307-13666-3 ( Leptotyphlops : 136-137).
  3. ^ Hulse AC. 1971. Fluoresence in Leptotyphlops humilis (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae). The Southwestern Naturalist 16 (1): 123-124. doi: 10.2307 / 3670106
  4. ↑ 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).

literature

  • SA Adalsteinsson, William Roy Branch , S. Trape, LJ Vitt, Stephen Blair Hedges . 2009. Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of snakes of the Family Leptotyphlopidae (Reptilia, Squamata). Zootaxa 2244 : 1-50.
  • Spencer Fullerton Baird , Charles Frédéric Girard : 1853. Catalog of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part I. — Serpents. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. ( Rena humilis , p. 143).
  • John L. Behler , FW King: 1979. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians . New York: AA button. ISBN 0-394-50824-6 ( Leptotyphlops humilis , pp. 584-585 + Plate 457).
  • George Albert Boulenger : 1893. Catalog of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families Typhlopidæ, Glauconiidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History, Taylor and Francis, printers. ( Glauconia humilis , pp. 70-71)).
  • Roger Conant : 1975. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-395-19977-8 (paperback). ( Leptotyphlops humilis , pp. 137-138, Figure 31 + Map 121).
  • Laurence Monroe Klauber : 1940. The Worm Snakes of the Genus Leptotyphlops in the United States and northern Mexico. Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist. 9 : 87-162.
  • Karl Patterson Schmidt , DD Davis: 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada . New York: GP Putnam's Sons. ( Leptotyphlops humilis : 94-95).
  • Robert Cyril Stebbins . 2003. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Third Edition . The Peterson Field Guide Series®. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-98272-3 ( Leptotyphlops humilis , pp. 340-341 + Plate 42 + Map 128).
  • Leonhard Hess Stejneger , Thomas Barbour : 1917. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 125 pp. ( Siagonodon humilis , p. 73).
  • Albert Hazen Wright , AA Wright: 1957. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada . Ithaca and London: Comstock. ( Leptotyphlops humilis , pp. 43-50, Figure 12 + Map 7, p. 39).

Web links

Commons : Rena humilis  - collection of images, videos and audio files