Typhlopidae

The Typhlopidae are a family of blind snakes.[2] They are found mostly in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and all mainland Australia and various islands.[3] The rostral scale overhangs the mouth to form a shovel-like burrowing structure. They live underground in burrows, and since they have no use for vision, their eyes are mostly vestigial. They have light-detecting black eye spots, and teeth occur in the upper jaw. The tail ends with a horn-like scale. Most of these species are oviparous. Currently, 18 genera are recognized containing over 200 species.[2][4]

Typhlopidae
Indotyphlops braminus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Infraorder: Scolecophidia
Superfamily: Typhlopoidea
Family: Typhlopidae
Merrem, 1820
Synonyms

Geographic range

They are found in most tropical and many subtropical regions all over the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, islands in the Pacific, tropical America, and southeastern Europe.[1]

Genera
Genus[2] Taxon author[2] Species[2] Common name Geographic range[1]
Acutotyphlops Wallach, 1995 5 Eastern Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
Afrotyphlops Broadley & Wallach, 2009[5] 29 sub-Saharan Africa
Amerotyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 15 Mexico through South America
Anilios Gray, 1845 47 Australia and New Guinea.
Antillotyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 12 Caribbean islands
Argyrophis Gray, 1845 12 Asia
Cubatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 12 Caribbean islands
Cyclotyphlops Bosch & Ineich, 1994 1 Indonesia: Selatan Province, southern Sulawesi
Grypotyphlops W. Peters, 1881[6] 1 peninsular India
Indotyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 23 Asia
Letheobia Cope, 1869[7] 32 Africa and the Middle East
Madatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 14 Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, Mauritius
Malayotyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 11 the Philippines and Indonesia
Ramphotyphlops Fitzinger, 1843 21 long-tailed blind snakes[2] southern and southeast Asia, as well as many islands in the southern Pacific Ocean
Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, 1843 7 Africa
Sundatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 1 Indonesia and East Timor
TyphlopsT Oppel, 1811 20 the West Indies
Xerotyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin, & Vidal, 2014 6 Palearctic

TType genus[1]

Former genera

Xenotyphlops, formerly classified in the Typhlopidae, is now classed in the Xenotyphlopidae.

See also

References
  1. McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
  2. "Typhlopidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 14 August 2007.
  3. Shine, Richard. 2007. Australian Snakes, a Natural History. Chatswood, New South Wales: New Holland Publishers. 224 pp. ISBN 978-1-876334-25-3.
  4. Pyron, Robert Alexander; Burbrink, Frank T.; Wiens, John J. (2013). "A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes" (PDF). BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13 (1): 93–145. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-93. PMC 3682911. PMID 23627680.
  5. Broadley, Donald G. & Wallach, Van (2009). "A review of the eastern and southern African blind-snakes (Serpentes: Typhlopidae), excluding Letheobia Cope, with the description of two new genera and a new species" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2255: 1–100. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2255.1.1.
  6. Resurrected for a reclassified Rhinotyphlops acutus by Wallach (2003). Wallach, Van & Pauwels, Olivier S. G. (2004). "Typhlops lazelli, a new species of Chinese blindsnake from Hong Kong (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)". Breviora. 512 (512): 1–21. doi:10.3099/0006-9698(2004)512[1:TLANSO]2.0.CO;2.
  7. Resurrected by Broadley & Wallach (2007). Wallach, Van; Brown, R.M.; Diesmos, A.C. & Gee, G.V.A. (2007). "An enigmatic new species of blind snake from Luzon Island, northern Philippines, with a synopsis of the genus Acutotyphlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)" (PDF). Journal of Herpetology. 41 (4): 690–702. doi:10.1670/206-5.1. S2CID 7385343.
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