Range: East Coastal Mexico, southern Tamaulipas to southern Veracruz

 

Though somewhat commonly encountered this Mexican blindsnake species has no current common name recognized, though could be referred to as Reseter’s blindsnake after its namesake. This species is quite small, reaching only around 14 cm in length with a slim cylindric build. The head is slightly broader than the neck and rounded, with a slightly flattened snout and prominent sensory pits covering the cranial scales, and the tail is short and stout with almost no taper down to the stout spike on the tip. Dorsal scale count is 238-258, scale row count 14 reduced to 10 caudally. Coloration is dark brown overall, with 8 yellowish to deep tan stripes formed by pale scale edges running down the dorsal side; ventral scales are edged in similar pale rings. The rostral scale sports a narrow to median sized yellow blotch or stripe, and the tail sports a yellow blotch ventrally that barely extends up over the tip dorsally as well as a pale, yellow-ringed cloacal shield scale. This species can be distinguished from its relatives by range (highly similar E. vindumi occurs over 600 miles away), the relatively small rostral spot and 7/8 pattern of dark/light dorsal stripes, and sagittate rostral.

 

Habitat: recorded on the coastal plain from 0-800 meters in elevation, known primarily from under debris and leaf litter in tropical forests but also in the axils of terrestrial bromeliads in savannah environments.

 

Prey: likely small, soft-bodied invertebrates such as ant and termite larvae and eggs.

 

Lifespan and reproduction: lifespan unknown though likely under 10 years. Oviparous.

 

Sources: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95217737  Pedro E. Nahuat-Cervera under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Wallach, V. 2016. Morphological review and taxonomic status of the Epictia phenops species group of Mesoamerica, with description of six new species and discussion of South American Epictia albifrons, E. goudotii, and E. tenella (Serpentes Leptotyphloptidae: Epictinae). Mesoamerican Herpetology 3: 216–374.

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Epictia&species=resetari&search_param=()