Red Worm Lizard

About the Red Worm Lizard

Amphisbaena alba, also known as the red worm lizard or less commonly as the white or white-bellied worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the reptilian order Squamata. Despite the large geographic range that this species covers, little is known about its ecology due to its secretive habits. A. alba has a diverse diet ranging from plant material to small vertebrates (such as lizards and their eggs, snakes, mice, and other rodents). Numerically, beetles, ants, and spiders compose the majority of their diet; however, ants, insect larvae, beetles, cockroaches, hemipterans, mole crickets, crickets, grasshoppers, termites, spiders, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and annelids are ingested to satisfy a larger volume. The females are somewhat larger than the males, and can reach over 80 cm, which is quite large for an amphisbaenian. They are known to bury themselves in leafcutter ant nests and hide in the ants' garbage dump areas to avoid irritating the ants into attacking, and to bury themselves to avoid predation in general.

It occurs in South America from eastern Venezuela and the island of Trinidad through the entire Amazon Basin to northern Argentina. Amphisbaena... Wikipedia →