St. Lucia Slim Blind Snake
| St. Lucia Slim Blind Snake | ||||||||||||
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Tetracheilostoma breuili |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tetracheilostoma breuili | ||||||||||||
| ( Hedges , 2008) |
The St. Lucia slender blind snake ( Tetracheilostoma breuili , syn .: Leptotyphlops breuili , English St. Lucia Threadsnake ) is a species of snake from the family of slim blind snakes (Leptotyphlopidae), which is endemic to Saint Lucia . The species was scientifically described by Blair Hedges in 2008.
Surname
The species was named in honor of Michel Breuil , a herpetologist who researched the fauna of the Antilles .
description
Adult animals have a mean total length of 119 mm. The snake has 14 rows of scales in the middle of its body.
The basic color of the body is dark brown to black on the upper side with two yellowish side stripes. It differs from the closely related species Tetracheilostoma bilineatus ( Martinique ) and Tetracheilostoma carlae ( Barbados ) by two spots behind the head and a darker tail.
Way of life
The species lives in the tropical rainforests of St. Lucia. Otherwise nothing is known about the ecology. Slender blind snakes generally burrow underground and feed on termites and ants and their larvae; A similar way of life can therefore also be assumed for Tetracheilostoma breuili .
literature
- S. Blair Hedges: At the lower size limit in snakes: two new species of threadsnakes (Squamata: Leptotyphlopidae: Leptotyphlops) from the Lesser Antilles. In: Zootaxa Volume 1841, 2008, pp. 1–30 ( mapress.com PDF).
