Reptilia · Squamata
Bachia heteropaLichtenstein & Martens, 1856
Worm lizard
Photograph by Stephanie Tran, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 64 mm snout to vent.
Also called LaGuaira Bachia.
Reptilia › Squamata › Gymnophthalmidae › Bachia
- Grows to
- 64mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Cryptic
Longer than 56% of all species in Gymnophthalmidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 28 to 121 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
34 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2013
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Reduced
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 28.9°C84 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 28.9°C
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 64mm2.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 53mm2 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 53mm2 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 19mm0.7 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1.8g0.06 oz
max 64 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Cryptic
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 600m
- Range size
- 83,731km²
- Density
- 739per hectare
insects (Murphy 1997), arthropods (Ugueto and Rivas 2010, Henderson and Powell 2018), arthropods, "Two stomachs contained plant material", but "we believe that the plant matter (leaf fragments) was inadvertently consumed" (Powell and Henderson 2017),
e.g., La Marca and Soriano 2004, Murphy et al. 2018, Senaris et al. 2018
Leaf Litter and Fossorial / cryptic "always under shelter" (Quinn et al. 2010), leaf litter and cryptic (Henderson and Powell 2018)
0-500 (Senaris and Rojas-Runjaic 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
Powell and Henderson 2017, Henderson and Powell 2018; n=2, Murphy et al. 2018, n = 4
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Bachia heteropa heteropa (LICHTENSTEIN & MARTENS 1856) Bachia heteropa marcelae DONOSO-BARROS 1968
- Described by
- Lichtenstein & Martens
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1856
- Type locality
- Venezuela
Keeping one
10 in × 10 in × 6.25 in(26 × 26 × 16 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2.5 in (64 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 84 °F (28.9 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
0kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 2 g, the heaviest recorded for Worm lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Gymnophthalmidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Bachia heteropa. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bachia-heteropa
@misc{bachia_heteropa_2026,
title = {Bachia heteropa},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bachia-heteropa}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.