The brittle snake is a rare, limbless species of snake lizard. I believe there are many friends who don’t know much about it, so let me tell you about it~

I. Basic information

Chinese name: Crispy snake 

Latin name: Ophisaurus harti

Kingdom: Animalia

phylum: Chordate 

Subphylum: Vertebrate 

Class: Reptiles 

Order: Squamous 

Named and Date: Boulenger, 1899

II. Appearance Characteristics

The Crispy Snake is relatively sturdy, with a body length of about 500 mm; there are two obvious black round spots on the top of its head, which resemble a pair of large eyes; the back of the body is light brown or Milky white, with two rows of sparse black dots on both sides of the body, but with age, the small black dots will gradually turn into a black back ridge.

III. Discrimination between male and female

There are 17-20 emerald-colored horizontal stripes ranging from 17 to 20 on both sides of the midline of the back of the male brittle snake, and Onyx and black spots; while females have no bright spots on the back, dark longitudinal stripes on the dorsal margin of the lateral grooves extend from the back of the head to the ventral side.

4. Distribution range

Crispy snakes are mainly distributed in Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Vietnam.

V. Habitat

The brittle snake mainly inhabits grasses, vegetable gardens, mountain forests and the soil of tea gardens at an altitude of 300-800 meters.

6. Living habits

In summer, crisp snakes usually move and forage at 8-10 am and 3-5 pm; In winter, when the temperature drops to 13 degrees Celsius, the crispy snake will enter a state of hibernation; when the temperature is below 8 degrees Celsius, the crispy snake will enter a state of deep sleep. In addition, brittle snakes are carnivores and mainly feed on snails, earthworms, worms and various insects.

Seven. Breeding method

The breeding method of the crisp snake is oviparous, the female snake can lay 7-9 eggs each time, each egg is oval It is white in shape, with a diameter of about 24 mm × 16 mm, a weight of about 3-4.5 grams, and an incubation period of about 22-25 days. The newly born crispy snake is about 60-70 mm in length and about 6 mm in head width.

The brittle snake is a protected animal and has been included in several protection lists, as follows:

1. World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2009 ver 3.1) - none Critical (LC).

2. China's Biodiversity Red List - Vertebrate Volume (Reptiles) - Endangered (EN).

3. The List of Terrestrial Wild Animals Protected by the State that is Beneficial or Has Important Economic and Scientific Research Value issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.  

4. China National Key Protected Wildlife List Level 2.

Today's sharing is here! If you have any questions about Crispy Snake, please leave a message in the comment area~