Description
The average length of Leptotyphlops carlae adults is approximately 10 cm, (4 inches), with the largest specimen found to date measuring 10.4 cm (4.09 inches). The snakes are said to be "as thin as spaghetti." The photograph above shows L. carlae on a quarter dollar, a coin with a diameter of 24.26 mm (0.955 inches).
L. carlae is thought to feed primarily on a diet of termites and ant larvae. Threadsnakes are oviparous, laying eggs to reproduce. The female of this snake species produces only one large egg at a time. The emerging offspring is about half the length of the mother.
Small species of snake such as L. carlae have new-born offspring that are proportionately larger relative to adults, when compared to larger species of snake. This follows the biological trait that the smallest snakes tend to have offspring that—proportionately—are enormous relative to the adults by comparison to other species. The figure to the left demonstrates that the offspring of the largest snakes (see pointer) are only one-tenth the length of an adult, whereas offspring of the smallest snakes typically are one-half the length of an adult. The scale relationship presented is only of offspring to adult of the same species, not comparing adults. Tiny snakes produce only one, massive egg—relative to the size of the mother—which may suggest that there is a size limit for snake species below which survival is difficult, for internal physiological or external competitive reasons.
Read more about this topic: Barbados Threadsnake
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)