Genus · Uropeltidae
Types of burrowing snakes
2 species make up the genus Plectrurus, the snakes commonly called burrowing snakes. None are considered dangerous to humans.
About shieldtails
Small burrowing snakes of southern India's hills, harmless to people and built for a life spent underground.
Plectrurus is a small genus in the family Uropeltidae, the shieldtail snakes. Shieldtails are a group of secretive, fossorial (burrowing) snakes found only in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The genus contains just a couple of species in our database, including the Nilgiri Burrowing Snake and the Kerala Burrowing Snake, both tied to the moist, high-elevation forests and hill country of the Western Ghats in southern India.
Like other uropeltids, Plectrurus snakes are built for pushing through soil. They are small and cylindrical with smooth, glossy scales, a narrow pointed head with tiny eyes, and a short tail that often ends in a roughened or keeled tip, the feature that gives the family its common name of shieldtail. They spend most of their lives below ground or under leaf litter, root masses, and rotting logs, surfacing mainly after heavy rain. Because they live hidden and stay small, they are rarely seen and poorly known compared with more familiar snakes.
Shieldtails, including Plectrurus, are non-venomous and harmless to humans. They have no fangs capable of injecting venom and pose no danger if encountered. Their diet is built around soft-bodied soil prey such as earthworms and insect larvae, which they hunt in the tunnels they move through. Uropeltids give live birth to small litters rather than laying eggs. As with any wild animal, the best practice is to observe and leave it undisturbed; if anyone is ever bitten by a snake they cannot identify and symptoms develop, contact emergency services or, in the US, Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
Plectrurus belongs to the Uropeltidae family (Shield-tailed snakes). Burrowing snakes with a bizarre, roughened tail tip. Small, glossy, cylindrical, with tiny eyes and a distinctive truncated or rough tail tip.
Danger: Harmless. No venom.
All species (2)
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