Reptilia · Squamata
Xerotyphlops syriacusJan, 1864
Syrian Blind Snake
Photograph by Nasser Halaweh, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 394 mm nose to tail.
Also called Levantine Blindsnake.
Once published as Typhlops vermicularis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Typhlopidae › Xerotyphlops
- Grows to
- 394.4mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 6.2years
Longer than 75% of all species in Typhlopidae 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 950 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
27 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- No
- Longest recorded life
- 6.2years
6 years 2 months (Bar et al. 2021)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 387mm15 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 394.4mm15.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 88mm3.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 90mm3.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 19g0.67 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.2g0.01 oz
Steinhardt Museum of Natural History (394.4), 90-400, 0.2-13.8 g (Bar et al. 2021), exceptionally to 400 (Eid 2021), 13.8 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, min 88 mm SVL)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 120–1130m
arthropods (Eid 2021)
(Bar et al. 2021), though I saw a juvenile on the surface in daylight (~16:00) in a sunny day omn Passover 2022
Bar et al. 2021; pers. obs
120-1125 (Shai Meiri, personal observations)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–3eggs
4-8 (Eid 2021, but I suspect this refers to European snakes), 1-3 (Bar et al. 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
- 1864
- Type locality
- Egypt
Keeping one
5 ft 1 in × 5 ft 1 in × 3 ft 2 in(155 × 155 × 97 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 7.75 in (19 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 15 in (387 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 Syrian Blind 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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 19 g, the heaviest recorded for Syrian Blind 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
- — 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
- — Average clutch
- — 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
- — Fangs
- — 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
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
- — Range size
Others in Typhlopidae
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). Xerotyphlops syriacus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xerotyphlops-syriacus
@misc{xerotyphlops_syriacus_2026,
title = {Xerotyphlops syriacus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xerotyphlops-syriacus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Used under CC BY 4.0. Common names aggregated from constituent checklists.
- 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.