A BLACK BLIND SNAKE

The next day Leuccio came to me with a plastic Coke bottle holding the little critter shown in my hand above.

That's a snake. The head is at the top, the yellow-spotted end being the tip of the tail. The yellow spot might cause predators to attack the snake's tail instead of his head.

If you were with me in the Yucatan you may recall the Yucatan Dwarf Centipede Eater we ran across there one day, much smaller than this one. You can see that unbelievably small Yucatan snake and read about it at http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/snk_cent.htm.

The species wasn't represented in my field guide for the Yucatan and northern Guatemala. However, after I published the picture it was identified by Levi Gray, a grad student at the University of California at Davis as Leptotyphlops goudotii, species in the genus Leptotypholops known as Blind Snakes. One name found for this species is the Black Blind Snake.

Leptotyphlops species are non-venomous, blind snakes found throughout North and South America, Africa and southwestern Asia, with about. 86 species being recognized. Otherwise our species seems to be little known.

By the way, my impression is that with the arrival of the wet season snakes are becoming easier to see and species other than Speckled Racers are emerging.