Reptilia · Squamata
Diplometopon zarudnyiNikolsky, 1907
Zarudnyi s Worm Lizard
Photograph by Theo Busschau, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 236 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Trogonophidae › Diplometopon
- Grows to
- 236mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 21years
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
- 2012
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 21years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 26.4°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 31.5°C89 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 31.5°C
specimen captures in 1995 (as adult) still alive in 2014 and later after >20 years (Seufer 2017) so I list 21 as a conservative estimate
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 236mm9.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 13.35g0.47 oz
max 236 mm (Carranza et al. 2021)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Desert, Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 10months
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1000m
- Range size
- 973,784km²
predators (Gardner 2013), 99% beetles (Al-Sadoon et al. 2016 see also Aloufi et al. 2023), Archnids and insects (Kamali 2020), invertebrate larvae (Carranza et al. 2021)
e.g., Soorae et al. 2010, Gardner 2013, Masood and Asiry 2012, Kamali 2020, Carranza et al. 2021
e.g., Al-Sadoon et al. 2016, Carranza et al. 2021
0-1000 (Kamali 2020), 0-400 (Carranza et al. 2021)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 15
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 13–17eggs
Al-Sadoon et al. 2014, Kamali 2020
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
"each ovary was loaded with 6–9 eggs" and "The number of eggs was almost equal in both ovaries," (Al-Sadoon et al. 2014), so I conservatively write 13-17
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Amphisbaenia
- Infraorder
- Amphisbaenia (Laterata)
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Nikolsky
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1907
- Type locality
- Iran
Keeping one
3 ft 1 in × 3 ft 1 in × 23 in(94 × 94 × 59 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 4.75 in (12 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 9.25 in (236 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 80 °F (26.4 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. 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.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 13 g, the heaviest recorded for Zarudnyi s 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 female mean
- — 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 · snout to vent
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Trogonophidae
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). Diplometopon zarudnyi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/diplometopon-zarudnyi
@misc{diplometopon_zarudnyi_2026,
title = {Diplometopon zarudnyi},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/diplometopon-zarudnyi}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- 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.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.