Reptilia · Squamata
Blanus strauchiBedriaga, 1884
Turkish Worm Lizard
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A burrowing, meat-eating lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 212 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Blanidae › Blanus
- Grows to
- 212mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal, nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 23years
What is known
33 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
- 2008
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 23years
TAU museum records: 6 years and 4 months; a specimen caught summer 1994 (presumably as adult), died november 2014 (Seufer 2017)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 212mm8.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 203.9mm8 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 89mm3.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 89mm3.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 9.74g0.34 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.3g0.05 oz
max 212 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal, nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Shrubland
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 50–1300m
- Range size
- 88,280km²
insects (Werner 2016)
e.g., Avci et al. 2018
934-1150 (Tok et al. 2012)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 1.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- First breeds at
- 36months
Aaron Bauer, pers. comm, December 2013
1-2 (Aaron Bauer, pers. comm, December 2013), 1-2 (Werner 2016)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Amphisbaenia
- Infraorder
- Amphisbaenia (Laterata)
- Subspecies
- Blanus strauchi strauchi (BEDRIAGA 1884) Blanus strauchi bedriagae BOULENGER 1884
- Described by
- Bedriaga
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1884
- Type locality
- Turkey
Keeping one
2 ft 9 in × 2 ft 9 in × 21 in(85 × 85 × 53 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 4.25 in (11 cm) deep.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 8.25 in (212 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Turkish Worm Lizard. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 10 g, the heaviest recorded for Turkish 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 female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — 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
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean 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
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Blanidae
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). Blanus strauchi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/blanus-strauchi
@misc{blanus_strauchi_2026,
title = {Blanus strauchi},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/blanus-strauchi}
}Sources
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- 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.