Slowworms
[The "slow-" in slowworm is distinct from the English adjective ''slow'' ("not fast"); the word comes from Old English ''slāwyrm'', where ''slā-'' means "slowworm" and ''wyrm'' means "serpent, reptile". ()] (also called blindworms and hazelworms) are a small
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
(''Anguis'') of snake-like
legless lizard
Legless lizard may refer to any of several groups of lizards that have independently lost limbs or reduced them to the point of being of no use in locomotion.Pough ''et al.'' 1992. Herpetology: Third Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall:Pearson Education ...
s in the family
Anguidae
Anguidae refers to a large and diverse family of lizards native to the Northern Hemisphere. Common characteristics of this group include a reduced supratemporal arch, striations on the medial faces of tooth crowns, osteoderms, and a lateral fold ...
. The genus has several living
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, including the
common slowworm, the
eastern slowworm, the
Greek slowworm, the
Peloponnese slowworm
The Peloponnese slowworm (''Anguis cephalonnica'') is a species of lizard in the family Anguidae endemic to Greece. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, temperate grassland, ar ...
, and the Italian slowworm (''Anguis veronensis''). There are also known fossil species.
Description
Slowworms are typically grey-brown, with the females having a coppery sheen and two lateral black stripes, and the males displaying
electric blue spots, particularly in the breeding season. They
give birth to live young, which are about long at birth and generally have golden stripes.
Slowworms are slow-moving and can be easily caught, which has given rise to the
folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
that the "slow" in slowworm is the same as the English adjective slow; the actual origin is a
proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
root which simply means "slowworm" (cf. German ''Schleiche'').
[ Like many lizards, slowworms can shed their tails to distract predators. The tail regrows, but never fully. Principal predators are birds, badgers, hedgehogs, foxes and domestic cats.]
The average British slowworm can grow to 45 cm when fully mature and weigh about 100 g, females being slightly larger than the males. The tail makes up around half its length, but is indistinguishable from the body. It has been recorded to live for up to 30 years in wild, and the record age for a slowworm in captivity is 54 years (Copenhagen Zoo).
The specific
Specific may refer to:
* Specificity (disambiguation)
* Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness
Law
* Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual
* Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...
name ''fragilis'' (fragile) comes from the tendency of this species to shed its own tail, when threatened by predators, or if handled too roughly (caudal autotomy).
Morphology
Although slowworms much resemble snakes, and are often mistaken for such, they are actually lizards that have lost their limb
Limb may refer to:
Science and technology
*Limb (anatomy), an appendage of a human or animal
*Limb, a large or main branch of a tree
*Limb, in astronomy, the curved edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body, e.g. lunar limb
*Limb, in botany, ...
s completely with evolution.
Slowworms can be distinguished from snakes by several features: their eyelid
An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid, exposing the cornea to the outside, giving vision. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. The human eyel ...
s, which snakes lack (having brille instead); their small ear openings, which again snakes lack; and their tongues, which are notched in the centre rather than completely forked like a snake's.
Habitat
Slowworms live in any habitat that is warm and protected, such as woodland, grassland, and heathland; they are frequently found in garden compost heaps, sometimes on purpose for pest control. They range across most of Europe, and into parts of Asia, but they are restricted to temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
and humid habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s. They hibernate from October to February/March, both communally and solitarily, and sometimes share hibernating sites with other reptiles.
Diet
Slowworms have grooved teeth which allow them to grab and swallow whole their soft invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
prey, such as slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
s, hairless caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...
s, other insects, spiders, and earthworm
An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...
s. Snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...
s are usually avoided, except when they are still very young and the shell can be broken easily.
Protected status
Slowworms are protected
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...
in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
.
Classification
Subfamily Anguinae
*Genus ''Anguis''
**'' Anguis cephallonica'', Peloponnese slowworm – Werner, 1894
**''Anguis colchica
''Anguis colchica'', the eastern slowworm, is a species of lizard in the family Anguidae
Anguidae refers to a large and diverse family of lizards native to the Northern Hemisphere. Common characteristics of this group include a reduced suprat ...
'', eastern slowworm – (Nordmann, 1840)
**''Anguis fragilis
The slow worm (''Anguis fragilis'') is a reptile native to western Eurasia. It is also called a deaf adder, a slowworm, a blindworm, or regionally, a long-cripple and hazelworm. These legless lizards are also sometimes called common slowworms. Th ...
'', common slowworm — Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
, 1758
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...
**''Anguis graeca
''Anguis graeca'', the Greek slow worm, is a species of lizard in the family Anguidae found in Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic o ...
'', Greek slowworm – Bedriaga, 1881
**'' Anguis veronensis'', Italian slowworm — Pollini, 1818
**''Anguis rarus'' Klembara & Rummel, 2017
**''Anguis stammeri'' Brunner, 1957[
**''Anguis polgardiensis'' Bolkay, 1913][
Gvoždík et al. (2013) distinguished five genetic species of ''Anguis'': ''graeca'', ''colchica'', ''fragilis'', ''cinerea'', and ''cephallonica'', but a review of the genus has not yet been completed.]
Extant species
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2046334
Anguis
Lizard genera
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
de:Blindschleiche