Did you know that there is a tiny snake that almost looks like a worm? Yes! It is the Barbados Threadsnake or its scientific name tetracheilostoma carlae.
The adults of the Barbados thread snake only measure up to 10 centimetres, with the longest one being only 10.4 centimetres.
S. Blair Hedges, a scientist from Pennsylvania State University, made the official discovery of this species in 2008 when he found one crawling behind a rock near a woodland clearing in Barbados. However, there is very little information about the species’ ecology or behaviour at this time.
The snake is a member of the Leptotyphlopidae family which is also known as slender blind snake or thread snakes. You can find this species of snake in North America, South America, Africa and Asia.
In this case, the Barbados threadsnake can be found on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean, hence the name.
Blair Hedges said that the snake is about as wide as a spaghetti noodle. From there, you can already imagine the size of this small reptile.
Although the diet of the Barbados threadsnake is unknown, it is thought that its tiny size and burrowing lifestyle likely force it to feed on insect larvae, particularly those of ants and termites, found in the soil.
The females of this species are egg layers, and they deposit a single, enormous, ovoid egg. Baby snakes are about half the size of full-grown snakes.
Unfortunately, the snake is currently classified as critically endangered. Approximately 2% of the natural forest cover remains in eastern Barbados.
The remainder of the island became a place for sugarcane production when the English colonised it in the early 1700s.
Sources: Oddity Central