The smallest snake in the world is the Lesser Antillean Threadsnake, found in well… the Lesser Antilles. It is about half a millimeter in diameter and grows no longer than 30 centimeters. They have tiny black eyes that are covered by a thin scale. They spend most of their time underground burrowing around and unless you look really closely, are hard to distinguish from Earth worms. They don’t have that uncanny ability to dislocate their jaw to eat humongous prey like other snakes because their jaw is fixed in place with teeth on the bottom only. They mostly eat ants and termites. I wouldn’t want to be the predator to attack these little guys. In a special defensive strategy, they void the contents of their cloaca; the “chute” that both urine and feces come out of. They then proceed to ball up and writhe around coating their bodies with this mixture, making them chemically unattractive prey. All birds, reptiles and amphibians have a cloaca. I used to capture garter snakes as a kid; now I know why they always seemed stinky!

The image provided here is not the Lesser Antillean Threadsnake, but another species of blind snake that looks very similar. The Lesser Antillean is slightly darker in color.

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