Chirindia

Pink round-headed worm lizards
Soutpansberg worm lizard, Chirindia langi subsp. occidentalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Amphisbaenia
Family: Amphisbaenidae
Genus: Chirindia
Boulenger, 1907
Species

see text

Synonyms
  • Amphisbaenula Sternfeld, 1911

The pink round-headed worm lizards (Chirindia) are a genus in the family Amphisbaenidae, that are native to East and southern Africa,[1] from Tanzania to South Africa. They are unpigmented worm lizards with rounded heads, and extensive fusion of the head shields.[1]

Description

The Chirindia are some 13.5 cm long, with the tail 1.4 cm, and the body is 3 mm in diameter. They are uniformly, unpigmented flesh-coloured, tinged with purplish, and have minute teeth.[2] They usually lack an ocular shield, and each eye is situated under the posterior part of a large fused shield, that combines the nasal, second and sometimes first upper labial, prefrontal and sometimes the ocular shield into one,[1] so as to cover all of one side of the snout.[2]

The pair of large shields, fused with the ocular to cover each side of the snout, combined with a small azygous rostral shield, are comparable to that of genus Placogaster of the Senegambia, but the paired ventral shields, and absence of pre-anal pores in some species distinguish them.[2]

Habits and predators

They burrow in loose soil and feed on termites. They are present in clay, sandy or alluvial soils, and sometimes find refuge under stones and rotten logs.[1] They are preyed on by jackals, ratels, kingfishers and snakes, of which some, like the dwarf wolf snake, are specialized to prey on them.[1]

Species

The genus contains 5 or 6 species:[1][3]

syn. Chirindia bushbyi

References

Wikispecies has information related to: Chirindia
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Branch, Bill (1998). Field guide to snakes and other reptiles of southern Africa (3 ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 121–122. ISBN 9781868720408.
  2. 1 2 3 Boulenger, G. A. (1907). "Descriptions of a new Toad and a new Amphisbaenid from Mashonaland". Annals and Magazine of Natural History 20 (7): 47–49. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  3. "Genus: Chirindia". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  4. "Chirindia swynnertoni BOULENGER, 1907". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
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