Western Threadsnake

About the Western Threadsnake

Rena humilis, known commonly as the western blind snake, the western slender blind snake, and the western threadsnake, is a species of snake in the family Leptotyphlopidae. The species is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Six subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominate subspecies described here.

R. humilis, like most species in the family Leptotyphlopidae, resembles a long earthworm. It lives underground in burrows, and since it has no use for vision, its eyes are mostly vestigial. The western blind snake is pink, purple, or silvery-brown in color, shiny, wormlike, cylindrical, blunt at both ends, and has light-detecting black eyespots. The skull is thick to permit burrowing, and it has a spine at the end of its tail that it uses for leverage. It is usually less than 30 cm (12 in) in total length (tail included), and is as thin as an earthworm. This species and other blind snakes are fluorescent under low frequency ultraviolet light (black light).

On the top of the head, between the ocular scales, L. humilis has only one scale (L. dulcis has three scales). R. humilis is found in the southwestern... Wikipedia →