Reptilia · Squamata
Myriopholis macrorhynchaJan, 1860
Longnosed Worm Snake
Photograph by Omid Mozaffari, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 291 mm nose to tail.
Also called Hook-snouted worm snake, Phillips' Blind Snake.
Once published as Myriopholis hamulirostris — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Leptotyphlopidae › Myriopholis
- Grows to
- 291mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial
Longer than 83% of all species in Leptotyphlopidae 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 91 to 900 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
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 271mm10.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 291mm11.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 112mm4.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 120mm4.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 5.98g0.21 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 1.45g0.05 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.1g0 oz
269 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), max 185 (Carranza et al. 2021), Bar et al. 2021: 120-291 mm total length, 112-271 mm SVL (SMNH; 0.1-2.5 g), 100-200 (Eid 2021), 2.5 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, for females 1.45 g), Aidek et al. 2023 (max 28 cm), max 22 cm (Spawls et al. 2023, Trape 2023)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1250m
- Range size
- 4,609,593km²
insects (Kamali 2020, Albarwari 2021), termites, also insect eggs, larvae and pupae (Carranza et al. 2021, see also Spawls et al. 2023)
Active (imputed value from O'Shea 2018), Active foraging (Banfi et al. 2023)
Shai Meiri, personal observations, Carranza et al. 2021, Bar et al. 2021, Eid 2021, Spawls et al. 2023, Trape 2023, Albarwari 2021
O'Shea 2018, Shai Meiri, personal observations, Carranza et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023, Trape 2023, Albarwari 2021
0-900 (O'Shea 2018), from 360 m below sea level to 460 asl (Shai Meiri, personal observations), 0-500 (Carranza et al. 2021), 0-1250 (Albarwari 2021)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–3eggs
Geniez 2018, O'Shea 2018, Kamali 2020
"small clutches" (Carranza et al. 2021), 2-3 (Eid 2021), "around 3" (Bar et al. 2021), "several" (Albarwari 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Scolecophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Jan
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1860
- Type locality
- South Sudan
Keeping one
3 ft 7 in × 3 ft 7 in × 2 ft 3 in(108 × 108 × 68 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 5.25 in (14 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 10.5 in (271 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 Longnosed Worm Snake. 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 6 g, the heaviest recorded for Longnosed Worm Snake — 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
- — 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
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Leptotyphlopidae
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). Myriopholis macrorhyncha. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/myriopholis-macrorhyncha
@misc{myriopholis_macrorhyncha_2026,
title = {Myriopholis macrorhyncha},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/myriopholis-macrorhyncha}
}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.