St. Lucia threadsnake

The St. Lucia threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma breuili) is a species of blind snake in the family Leptotyphlopidae.

St. Lucia threadsnake
Photograph by Dr. Blair Hedges, Penn State.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Leptotyphlopidae
Genus: Tetracheilostoma
Species:
T. breuili
Binomial name
Tetracheilostoma breuili
Hedges, 2008
Synonyms[2]
  • Leptotyphlops breuili
    Hedges, 2008
  • Tetracheilostoma breuili
    — Adalsteinsson et al., 2009

Etymology

The specific name, breuili, is in honor of France herpetologist Michel Breuil.[3]

Geographic range

T. breuili is endemic to the Caribbean island-nation of Saint Lucia.[4]

Description

T. breuili can reach a total length (including tail) of 119 mm (4.7 in). It is dark brown with two yellowish lateral stripes, like the closely related L. bilineatus (Martinique) and L. carlae (Barbados). It differs from those two species by having two spots behind its head, and a dark tail.[4]

References
  1. Daltry, J.C. 2016. Tetracheilostoma breuili (errata version published in 2017). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T203636A115351355. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T203636A2769291.en. Downloaded on 26 July 2018.
  2. "Tetracheilostoma breuili ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Leptotyphlops breuili, p. 38).
  4. Hedges, S. Blair (2008), "At the lower size limit in snakes: two new species of threadsnakes (Squamata: Leptotyphlopidae: Leptotyphlops) from the Lesser Antilles" (PDF), Zootaxa, 1841: 1–30, doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1841.1.1, retrieved March 5, 2010 (Leptotyphlops breuili, new species, p. 9 + Figure 1B).

Further reading
  • Adalsteinsson SA, Branch WR, Trape S, Vitt LJ, Hedges SB (2009). "Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of snakes of the family Leptotyphlopidae (Reptilia, Squamata)". Zootaxa 2244: 1-50. (Tracheilostoma breuili, new combination).
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