Home / Myriopholis macrorhyncha (=Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus) (Hookbilled Blind Snake /İpliksi Kör Yılan)
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Myriopholis macrorhyncha (=Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus) (Hookbilled Blind Snake /İpliksi Kör Yılan)

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Myriopholis macrorhyncha (=Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus) (Hookbilled Blind Snake /İpliksi Kör Yılan)


Myriopholis macrorhyncha (=Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus) (Hookbilled Blind Snake /İpliksi Kör Yılan) from Küplüce, Kilis -24.04.2007.

General Infos: Leptotyphlopidae is one of the families known as “blind snakes” together with Anomalepididae (early blindsnakes) and Typhlopidae (common blindsnakes). They are known as “slender blind snakes” and they include the most highly miniaturized snakes in the world. Although a few species occasionally grow to lengths of over 30 cm, most forms are significantly smaller, ranging between 10 and 25 cm in total length and often weighing less than 1.4 g). Even more remarkable than their short length, however, is their extremely narrow build, a characteristic reflected in their common names, “slender blindsnakes,” “threadsnakes,” and “wormsnakes.” Most species attain a maximum body width of only 0.04–0.20 in (0.1–0.5 cm) and exhibit aspect ratios (total length divided by body width) of between 40 and 140. Leptotyphlopids bear a strong superficial resemblance to other blindsnakes (Anomalepididae and Typhlopidae) in having cylindrical bodies covered by smooth, equally sized, cycloid scales, short lower jaws countersunk into the ventral surface of the head, and vestigial eyes that are scarcely visible beneath the enlarged head scales. (However, in some species, most notably Leptotyphlops macrops, the eyes are larger and more highly developed.) In addition, all forms have numerous tactile organs housed within the anterior head scales, often visible to the naked eye as tiny, light-colored specks on the external surfaces of the scales. However, several morphological characteristics serve to distinguish leptotyphlopids from anomalepidid and typhlopid blindsnakes. In particular, all slender blindsnakes have either 14 (in Leptotyphlops) or 16 (in Rhinoleptus) rows of scales encircling the body (all anomalepidids and nearly all typhlopids have more than 16 scale rows), a single anal shield (all anomalepidids and nearly all typhlopids have two or more), and a distinctive arrangement of the scales along the upper lip. Moreover, leptotyphlopids are unique among snakes in having teeth only on the lower jaw.

Slender blindsnakes are generally rather dull in appearance. Most leptotyphlopids are patternless and have a relatively uniform pink, gray, tan, brown, or black dorsal coloration. Leptotyphlopids are also characterized by a number of distinctive internal anatomical features. The most significant of these relate to the structure of the jaws. The upper jaws are toothless and relatively immobile. In contrast, the lower jaw bears teeth and is highly flexible due to the presence of exceptionally well-developed intramandibular joints, which divide the left and right halves of the lower jaw into separate anterior and posterior segments. The pelvic girdle is, in general, more complete than that of other snakes. Slender blindsnakes have a relatively wide geographical distribution: Africa, southwest Asia, southern North America, Central America, the West Indies, and South America. They are known to occur in a relatively broad array of habitats, including deserts, tropical rainforests, dry woodlands, savannas, plantations, and boulder-strewn mountain slopes. They are generally found within a relatively narrow range of microhabitats. They are most frequently found in shallow soil, amidst leaf litter and other surface debris, or beneath stones or logs. They are also occasionally encountered within rotten logs, anthills, and termite nests. The strong preference that these tiny snakes appear to have for such microhabitats is likely related at least in part to their extremely high surface-to-volume ratios, which make the crucial tasks of regulating body temperature and minimizing evaporative water loss especially challenging.

They are predominantly fossorial snakes. They are most commonly encountered by humans either during the course of digging operations or after heavy rains have flooded them out of their subterranean retreats. No observations have been made on their burrowing behavior, but it is likely that they make extensive use of preexisting animal burrows and root systems when moving about underground. They can quickly burrow into loose soils such as sand, but they appear to lack the strength necessary to construct their own tunnels in compact soils.

Although these secretive snakes spend most of their lives underground, they do occasionally venture above ground during the evening hours to search for food or mates. When disturbed by potential predators during these above-ground excursions, they immediately attempt to escape into the ground. If this fails, however, they have several additional defensive strategies that they may implement. When restrained, they usually thrash about violently in an attempt to escape. If a snake cannot wiggle free from danger, it will jab its captor with its sharp tail spine and void the contents of its cloaca. Slender blindsnakes feed exclusively on small invertebrate prey. Some species consume a relatively wide variety of such animals, including beetles, caterpillars, centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, fly larvae, harvestmen, millipedes, and spiders. However, the bulk of their diet consists mainly of ant brood and termites. Like other snakes, they rely heavily on chemoreception to find their prey. They are able to follow the pheromone trails of ants and termites with relative ease, allowing them to locate large colonies of these abundant social insects in almost any environment. Once the snakes enter these colonies, they go into a feeding frenzy and quickly gorge themselves, often eating hundreds of prey items in a single meal. They ingest their prey using a unique feeding mechanism, in which the front half of the lower jaw is rapidly flexed in and out of the mouth to ratchet prey into the throat. This mandibular raking mechanism allows leptotyphlopids to feed very rapidly, thereby minimizing the time that they are exposed to the attacks of ants and termites defending their nests. These tiny snakes also have evolved an elaborate defensive behavior to help protect themselves from the bites and stings of ants. When molested, they briefly retreat from their attackers and coil into a ball. They then expel a mixture of glandular secretions and feces from the cloaca and begin to writhe within their coils, deliberately spreading this mixture over their entire bodies. After several minutes of this, the snakes take on a glossy, silvery appearance. More importantly, however, they emerge from their coils with at least a partial immunity to ant attacks. The secret to this defensive strategy is a mixture of chemicals in the snakes’ cloacal secretions that has a strong repellent effect on ants. Once the snakes have applied this “ant repellent,” they resume feeding, during which time they are generally left unbothered by the ants. The reproductive biology of slender blindsnakes is poorly known. All species are believed to be oviparous. Reproduction is highly seasonal, with courtship and mating occurring in the spring and oviposition occurring in the summer. Clutch size typically ranges between two and seven eggs. However, some species occasionally deposit clutches consisting of only a single egg, and one Latin American species is known to produce clutches of up to 12 eggs. The eggs are generally are elongate and thin-shelled. Natural incubation times are unknown.

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Hookbilled Blind Snake: It is widely distributed especially in Egypt and Sudan, eastwards through southern Turkey (SE Anatolia), Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Jordan to NW India. It is usually found under stones, both at sparsely vegetated rocky slopes and steppes, and in the cultivated fields and gardens.

It is a small, aglyphous, earthworm-like snake, with a maximum length of 28 cm. The cylindrical and extremely slender body is almost constantly thick (ca. 3 mm) from the neck to the tail; the small head with a rounded, slightly hooked snout is not distinct from the neck. The dorsal scales are smooth, in 14 rows at midbody. There are no enlarged ventral nor subcaudal scales, the dorsal scales are 300-490 in a longitudinal row, 43-53 at the tail. The anal shield is entire. The tail is about 10% of the body length, its tip is pointed. The eyes are vestigial but well recognisable under the translucent cranial scales. The rostral shield is large, rounded. Two upper labials are exist and the first minute. Rostral, nasal and ocular scales in direct contact with the mouth. The coloration is usually uniform light rosy, reddish or yellowish. The ventral side is partly translucent, so that inner organs, eggs, or food remnants can be observed through the body wall. It is a fossorial species, spending nearly all of its life buried in the soil or under the stones. It is oviparous, females lay several elongate eggs into the moist earth. Thanks to the minute mouth, only small prey can be swallowed. The diet consists predominantly of developmental stages of ants, termites and other small soft invertebrates. Although widely distributed, the data on its life history are, thanks to its fossorial habit, very sparse.

References: 1. Göçmen, B. (Unpub. results). The results of herpetological trips. 2. Budak, A. & Göçmen, B. (2005). Herpetology. Ege Üniversitesi Fen Fakültesi Kitaplar Serisi, No. 194, Ege Üniversitesi Basimevi, Bornova-Izmir, 226 pp. [2nd Edition, 2008]. 3. Grzimek, B., (2003). Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, Second Edition Volume 7 Reptiles Schlager Group Inc. 571 pp. 4. Disi, A. M., Modry, D., Necas, P. & Rifai, L. (2001). Amphibians and Reptiles of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Edition Chimaira, 408 pp.


Author Bayram GÖÇMEN
Created on Friday 24 April 2009
Posted on Friday 15 July 2011
Tags Kilis, TURKEY / TÜRKİYE
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