Natural History of Australian Typhlopid Snakes

Abstract

Dissection of 1198 specimens of 15 species of Australian Ramphotyphlops, combined with observations in the field and in captivity, provided information on the natural history of this group of small, fossorial scolecophidians. Females consistently outnumbered males in museum collections, and were larger than males in all species. Dimorphism in adult body size was determined mainly by dimorphism at maturation, and tended to be more extreme in larger species. Clutch sizes of 1-34 eggs were recorded, and were correlated with maternal body size in interspecific (and some intraspecific) comparisons. Re- production seems to be highly seasonal, with the eastern R. nigrescens showing mating and vitellogenesis in spring, oviposition in midsummer, and hatching in autumn. Incubation is relatively brief in this species (approx. 48 days at 25 C). Stomachs of four species contained mostly (93-97%) ant pupae and larvae, of several genera. Termites, ant eggs, and adult ants were rarely eaten. Individual blindsnakes contained up to 1400 prey items. Larger typhlopids ate larger prey items in both intraspecific and interspecific com- parisons. Perhaps because of its wider mouth, R. pinguis consumed larger prey items than did R. nigrescens of similar body lengths. The Infraorder Scolecophidia consists of three families of small, fossorial snakes with eyes re- duced to darkly pigmented spots beneath en- larged head scales. Although scolecophidian snakes are diverse and abundant throughout most of the world's land masses, they have at- tracted far less scientific attention than have the larger and more spectacular henophidian and cenophidi~ species. The single scolecophidian genus for which detailed data are available is Leptotyphlops, the only North American repre- sentative of the group (e.g., Watkins et aI., 1969; Punzo, 1974). Although the Typhlopidae are more speciose and widely distributed than oth- er scolecophidians, their ecology remains vir- tually unstudied. For example, the extensive re- view of Fitch (1970) on squamate reproduction has only a single page devoted to the 150 species in this family. Information on phylogenetically distinctive