Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Amphisbaenidae > Amphisbaena > Amphisbaena alba

Amphisbaena alba (Red Worm Lizard)

Synonyms: Amphisbaena alba var. dissectas; Amphisbaena alba var. radiatas; Amphisbaena beniensis; Amphisbaena flavescens

Wikipedia Abstract

Amphisbaena alba, also known as the red worm lizard or less commonly as the white or white-bellied worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the reptilian order Squamata. Despite the large geographic range that this species covers, little is known about its ecology due to its secretive habits. A. alba has a diverse diet ranging from plant material to small vertebrates. Numerically, beetles, ants, and spiders compose the majority of their diet; however, ants, insect larvae, and beetles are ingested to satisfy a larger volume.
View Wikipedia Record: Amphisbaena alba

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  210 grams
Habitat Substrate [2]  Fossorial, Terrestrial
Litter Size [3]  12
Maximum Longevity [4]  15 years
Reproductive Mode [2]  Oviparous
Snout to Vent Length [3]  17 inches (44 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Atlantic Forest Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay No
Cerrado Brazil No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No
Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru No

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Aplectana albae <Unverified Name>[5]
Maracaya belemensis <Unverified Name>[5]
Oochoristica amphisbaenae <Unverified Name>[5]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Length–weight allometries in lizards, S. Meiri, Journal of Zoology 281 (2010) 218–226
♦ 2Meiri, Shai (2019), Data from: Traits of lizards of the world: variation around a successful evolutionary design, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f6t39kj
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0