Amphisbaena alba
Silhouette: Roberto Díaz Sibaja · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Amphisbaena alba, also known as the red worm lizard or less commonly as the white or white-bellied worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the reptilian order Squamata. Despite the large geographic range that this species covers, little is known about its ecology due to its secretive habits. A. alba has a diverse diet ranging from plant material to small vertebrates (such as lizards and their eggs, snakes, mice, and other rodents). Numerically, beetles, ants, and spiders compose the majority of their diet; however, ants, insect larvae, beetles, cockroaches, hemipterans, mole crickets, crickets, grasshoppers, termites, spiders, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and annelids are ingested to satisfy a larger volume. The females are somewhat larger than the males, and can reach over 80 cm, which is quite large for an amphisbaenian. They are known to bury themselves in leafcutter ant nests and hide in the ants' garbage dump areas to avoid irritating the ants into attacking, and to bury themselves to avoid predation in general.
It occurs in South America from eastern Venezuela and the island of Trinidad through the entire Amazon Basin to northern Argentina. Amphisbaena... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prague Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Rákosův pavilon | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 3 | Velemlokárium | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
No species of the same family or order lives in Belo Horizonte, so these are its closest relatives here: other reptiles.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Worm Lizard sighting in Belo Horizonte on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 7th most-seen of the 10 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red Worm Lizard in Belo Horizonte on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and August–March, the lowest months. That is one of Belo Horizonte's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain against 270 mm in December.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Worm Lizard sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 5
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Red Worm Lizard sightings, Belo Horizonte ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Manaus (Brazil, about 20%), Campo Grande (Brazil, about 20%) and Salvador (Brazil, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Worm Lizard is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Belo Horizonte (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
