About Anilius scytale (Linnaeus, 1758)
Anilius scytale (Linnaeus, 1758) is a moderate-sized snake that reaches approximately 70 cm (28 in) in length. This species is found in the Amazon rainforest of South America, the Guianas, and Trinidad and Tobago; its full geographic range spans the northern South American tropics, from southern and eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, south through the Amazon Basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. The given type locality for this species is "Indiis". It is a fossorial (burrowing) species that is rarely seen. It has a cylindrical body with a uniform diameter, a very short tail, bright red and black banding, and reduced eyes that sit beneath large head scales. It is considered the snake that most closely resembles the original ancestral condition of snakes, including having a lizard-like skull. Anilius scytale is reported to be ovoviviparous. Its diet includes beetles, caecilians (burrowing legless amphibians), amphisbaenids (worm lizards, which are legless lizards), small fossorial snakes, fish (particularly swamp eels), and frogs. It forages for food on the ground at night, and will sometimes forage in water as well.
