Reptilia · Squamata
Nothobachia ablepharaRodrigues, 1984
Nothobachia
Photograph by Adeilson Melo, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A burrowing, active by day or night, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 62 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Gymnophthalmidae › Nothobachia
- Grows to
- 62.4mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives up to
- 2years
Longer than 53% 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
37 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Reduced
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 2years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 37°C
at least 2 (Ramiro et al. 2017; " A female Nothobachia ablephara collected in August 2014, larger than the minimum size at sexual maturity, lived in our lab for > 1 a, indicating that the species can live > 2 a.")
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 62.4mm2.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 56.1mm2.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 57.4mm2.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1.69g0.06 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
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
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 250–650m
- Range size
- 59,192km²
Arthropods (many non-insects, Rocha and Rodrigues 2005), insects and spiders (dos Santos et al. 2012)
e.g., Garda et al. 2014, Camacho et al. 2015
(e.g., Uchoa et al. 2022)/ Diurnal (Rodrigues and Dos Santos 2008, Siedchlag et al. 2011, Rocha and Rodrigues 2005, Camacho et al. 2015, Roscito and Rodrigues 2012, Bars-Closel et al. 2018, Ramiro et al. 2019), "It exhibits diurnal/nocturnal activity" dos Santos et al. 2012
(pssamophylus) and leaf litter/fossorial (Roscito and Rodrigues 2012, Bars-Closel et al. 2018, Ramiro et al. 2019, Uchoa et al. 2022)
259-643 (Uchoa et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 12months
Roscito and Rodrigues 2012
(Roscito and Rodrigues 2012, invariable, same in Ramiro et al. 2017), usually 2 (Uchoa et al. 2022, but they write it for all gymnophthalmids with data, doesn't mean there must be other clutch sizes I guess)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Rodrigues
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1984
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
9.75 in × 9.75 in × 6.25 in(25 × 25 × 16 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 1.25 in (3 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 2.5 in (62.4 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 99 °F (37 °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.
0kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 2 g, the heaviest recorded for Nothobachia — 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 · 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
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — 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
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
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). Nothobachia ablephara. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/nothobachia-ablephara
@misc{nothobachia_ablephara_2026,
title = {Nothobachia ablephara},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/nothobachia-ablephara}
}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.