RAUK - Archived Forum - Anguis cephallonica????????

Sorry, here is picture, forgot to attach.

Hi Mathew , welcome to the boards.

As you can see from my other posts i'm into field herping in other countries also . I must agree, that is a very odd looking specimin , do you know it's length at all?

Alan

Hi Alan,

Very much like all your photographs you posted on the forum. This specimen will probably just be a very old slow-worm as they are known to live much longer than snakes. It has no vental groove, which means that it is not a Glass Lizard. It was about 50cm, i went to the local vet on the island who had a slow-worm in a jar, but he had thrown it out the day before i visited him. I will certainly investigate it further when i return next week, but i suspect that any Anguis i see will be a typical specimen, and not like the one photographed. Slow-worms are often hard to track down in hot Med countries, as even in this country, how often does one see a slow-worm out basking? When summer approaches they often retreat further under ground than usual.

Hi Matt, It's a really unusual looking animal this one! I know that slow-worms can live for over 50 years in captivity but what they look like at that age I don't know. I'm not sure if there are any photographs of really old Anguis in existence but they'd be an interesting comparison. This evening I will post a head scalation map for A. fragilis (British form - female). If you have a higher resolution photograph that you can make out the head scalation from then this may be useful for comparison. Do you know the sex of this animal? The neck and dorsolateral lines would suggest female but there is no obvious dorsal stripe. As this animal seems to have shed its tail at some point sexing by tail proportion is out...  In this case 50cm is a monsterously big Anguis as they're usually half tail or more! Do you know the snout-vent length?

Finally, it seems incredible that a slow worm would put up anysort of fight against a cat. Cats regularly kill adders and it seems surprising that a slow worm (about the most benign herp imaginable) would get a chance to bite back, let alone try.

Anyway, great pic of an amazing animal! Cheers, Lee.

Lee,

Other Anguis on Cephalonia, Ithaca and s.Greece are same in size and shape to UK fragilis, but with vivid lines along flanks. Called 'cephallonica' after Cephalonia. Anguis and Ophisaurus can bite, but only if physically being hurt by something, in this case a cat. As if a human picks one up, a Anguis will never bite, unless one causes it pain, and even them probably won't bite.

I have a male slow worm at one of my smooth snake/adder sites has been under the same tin for 11years. He is a biggy with some blue spotting;

SVL 24cm (measured 1999) wt 24g about as thick as a mans thumb, and this individual regularly gives me a nip when I pick him up.

Also many years ago in the 1970's did a reptile survey of Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel. The slow worms there are huge hardly any with full tails as the island is stuffed with herring gulls and they do take them. One individual was so impressive, 30cm, we sent it to the NHM but it was fragilis so nothing exciting other than exceptional size.

Tony