You know how you react when you step on a twig and it snaps around and hits you in the back of the leg?
Well, last evening when I was fixing the dog's leash instead of looking where I was walking that happened. I turned to see what I had stepped on and yikes, it was (still) moving. Sadly, the internal damage was too great and he (or she) did not make it.
I have not researched what it is but it was only about 13" long and the belly is yellow.
It kinda looks like a skink with no legs.
X
I was wondering about that myself, there are some legless ones but it was awfully skinny before the "incident" which seems to have resulted in internal bleeding and swelling. I took the photo this morning after it had been sitting all night.
Maybe you can find it here........ http://www.enature.com/home/indexNew.asp
I would have freaked out!
Poor thing. It's called a "glass snake", but it's really a legless lizard.
WOW,I've learned a new thing.......I wish these hung around here.
glass snake
glass snake, common name for the snakelike legless lizards of the genus Ophisaurus found in the S and central United States and in Eurasia. The shiny, scaled body is gray or greenish brown, sometimes striped above and whitish below. The American species, Ophisaurus ventralis, is 2 to 3 ft (60–90 cm) long; two thirds of the length is tail. The tail of a glass snake breaks easily from the body, either whole or in pieces, if struck; the lizard regenerates a new, usually shorter, tail without a real backbone. Like other lizards, and unlike snakes, the glass snake has eyelids and ear openings. Its tongue is broad. It feeds mostly on insects, worms, and slugs. A burrower, it lives in fields and meadows and seldom appears above ground in daylight. Glass snakes are classifed in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Reptilia, order Squamata, family Anguidae.
They would be neat to have around the garden to eat those nasty slugs....
Thanks Jenny! I should have known you would know what it is.
When it's tail slapped me I did freak. Poor dog was pretty scared by my yelling. After looking it at in daylight today I realized it wasn't anything to be worried about but at the time..........
Thankfully, we don't have any slugs because the soil is too salty but I have more than my share of insects it seems. I wonder if these guys eat those longish snails we have here?
Oh, poor thing! They are so cool!
I wish I had several in my garden. It does indeed resemble a skink with no legs.
They can get pretty large (about 24 inches) and fairly common in SC, and are so good to have in the garden, They are out and about at night and they love slugs.
I use them as an example of differences between snakes and lizards in my Scouting class for the Reptule MB. they have eyelids and ears, snakes have neither. Their tail has a fracture plane in it, thus they can lose their tail like an anole (it regrows slowly), whereas a snake does not and cannot regrow its tail.
Hopefully there are others in your yard!
...and they are welcome to stay here as long as they don't get under my feet again. LOL
You can see that fracture plate in my original photo. Don't think I didn't keep my distance when I saw something "different" on the tail and that pointy head. It was dusk and I could not see the features well in that light.
This morning the poor thing was right where I left him and I could see it wasn't what I originally thought it might be. Big sigh of relief here.
alice, how cool! we have them here too. they can't bend like a regular snake or lizard and if they end up on something like a blacktop road, they have an awful time getting off. i've only seen a couple of them since we moved here, but it's always neat to see them.
Well, he was on our blacktop driveway when I i got him. Maybe he was trying to get away from my big feet.
lol and giggling. he probably couldn't get away because they are fast on ground as a rule. he was lying there waiting for a good samaritan to help him....oh, i'm bad.
Cool! I always thought I was seeing garter snakes. Now I'm pretty sure I have glass snakes. I know there are plenty of slugs, so they would have a plentiful food source.
Barb
I wonder what they eat here, we do not have slugs because the soil is too salty.
They eat lots of things, bugs and beetles, rolypoly bug, etc. Like most lizards they are hunters. If they came across a mouse nest they would probably eat baby mice. Mostly insects, grubs, etc. They like to be in leaf litter, I think .
ere is a funny thread about a lady who found one in her pond (it fell in, but it did not have hands to wave for help!)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/987191/
Good info on him here and other good info for Carolina's herptiles (reptiles and amphibians)
http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/lizards/ophven.htm
"are most common in sandy areas of the Coastal Plain."
Good site here, too, but further south - but we get many of the same here in SC
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/herpetology.htm
LOL, Ardesia! My first thought in looking at the photo was "Jeez, Ardesia that's just a glass snake---you should be whooping for joy". Glad to have confirmation of my off-the- cuff assessment!
I don't believe I have ever seen one before but I am seeing them all over the place now. They are everywhere all of a sudden. Maybe all the rain?????
Maybe they just like the low country?
They probably do, doesn't everybody? Can't imagine why I haven't seen any before.
