Types of blind snakes

Anilios is a genus of blind snakes in the family Typhlopidae, the largest family of blind snakes worldwide. It contains the great majority of Australia's blind snake species, with our database holding 20+ of them, including the Blackish Blind Snake, the Prong-snouted Blind Snake, the Southern Blind Snake, and the Dark-spined Blind Snake. As typhlopids, these are among the most primitive living snakes, a lineage that has stayed small, fossorial, and specialized for life underground.

Like all members of Typhlopidae, Anilios snakes are built for burrowing. The body is slender and roughly the same thickness from head to tail, covered in smooth, glossy, tightly overlapping scales that let the animal slide through soil. The head is blunt and barely distinct from the neck, and the tail is short and often tipped with a small spine the snake uses for traction. The common name is literal: the eyes are reduced to dark spots beneath the head scales, capable of sensing light and dark but not forming images, which is all a permanent burrower needs.

Most Anilios species are small, commonly in the range of about 20 to 50 cm in total length, though size varies by species. They live across a wide spread of Australian habitats, from arid and semi-arid interior to wetter coastal regions, spending nearly all their time underground or under rocks, logs, and leaf litter. People most often encounter them after heavy rain, when flooding drives them to the surface, or when turning over cover objects in the garden. Their wormlike appearance means they are frequently mistaken for earthworms.

These snakes are harmless to humans. They are not venomous, have no large fangs, and their mouths are tiny, adapted to feeding rather than biting people. They do not pose a danger and there is no medical concern from handling them. That said, they are delicate, easily stressed wild animals best left undisturbed or gently returned to cover rather than kept or handled.

Anilios snakes feed mainly on the eggs, larvae, and pupae of ants and termites, following chemical trails into nests and feeding inside the colony. This diet ties them closely to soil ecosystems and makes them useful natural regulators of insect populations. Like other typhlopids, they reproduce by laying eggs, and some species are thought to be capable of producing clutches without a mate. Secretive and rarely seen, they are nonetheless a widespread and ecologically important part of Australia's reptile fauna.