Incognito Thread Snake

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Leptotyphlops incognitus

Joubert and I have just returned from a “Dads & Lads” weekend with good friends at the Kudu Private Nature Reserve outside Lydenburg in the Mpumalanga Province. While looking for crickets to use as fishing bait I came across this tiny Incognito Thread Snake underneath a rock.

The Incognito Thread Snake is a harmless and tiny reptile that lives almost exclusively underground, sometimes emerging on the surface during wet weather and then easily confused with an earthworm. They feed on invertebrates, especially termites.

Incognito Thread Snakes grow to about 15cm in length and are thinner than a matchstick. Females lay 3-4 rice-sized eggs that hatch in late summer.

In South Africa the Incognito Thread Snake occurs in Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province, and beyond our borders as far as Zambia, Malawi and southern Mozambique. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern.

26 thoughts on “Incognito Thread Snake”

    1. DeWetsWild Post author

      Voor Covid het ons gereeld sulke Pa-en-Seun naweke gedoen met ons uitgebreide vriendekring en dit was wonderlik om nou weer een te kon doen saam die vriende wat nog in Pretoria en omgewing bly. Ongelukkig het baie in die onlangse verlede uitgetrek Laeveld en Kaap toe.

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    1. DeWetsWild Post author

      One has to be careful to be certain what kind of snake it is before picking it up, Ruth. If I had any doubt as to this one’s identity, even as small as it is, I would certainly not pick it up. Thankfully I knew what it was and could introduce the boys to it.

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      1. Ruth

        Nature is amazing and how wonderful to introduce that interesting specimens to the boys. I’ve no real experience with actual live snakes so wouldn’t know which ones were safe. Guess I need to learn. I was at an outdoor wedding in Georgia and a Rattlesnake attended, uninvited. I would have thought it want to avoid a crowd. It was a dramatic, disturbing scene and although I wasn’t too close, it was a bad end for the poor creature. Ugh.

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      2. DeWetsWild Post author

        Sadly the end of the encounter you recalled is still the usual conclusion for interactions between humans and snakes here as well, Ruth. They have such an important role in the ecosystem. I know I’m commenting without knowing all the facts, but if the outdoor wedding venue in your example is a regular place for such festivities, chances are that there’s a larger than usual population there of critters the rattler might consider prey…

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