Brahminy Blind Snake

The Brahminy blind snake, Indotyphlops braminus, is a tiny non-venomous burrowing snake of the family Typhlopidae, originally native to Africa and Asia and now spread worldwide, often called the flowerpot snake because it has been dispersed inadvertently through the plant trade. It typically measures only 2 to 4 inches, occasionally up to 6, resembles an earthworm through convergent evolution with an indistinct head-neck boundary and tiny eyes covered by translucent scales that still detect light, fourteen rows of dorsal scales, a spurred tail tip, and coloration from charcoal or silver-gray to yellow-beige or purplish. It is remarkable as an entirely parthenogenetic species, every known specimen female, reproducing asexually to produce up to eight genetically identical triploid offspring, and it lives underground in ant and termite nests, feeding on their eggs, larvae and pupae, in both agricultural and natural settings up to about 1,500 meters elevation.