Anomalepididae is a family of American blind snakes. The species in this family are similar to Typhlopidae but some species possess a single tooth in the lower jaw. This family contains 4 genera and 20 species native to Central and South America.
At least two species eat ant eggs, as well as ant larvae (LAR-vee) and pupae (PEW-pee), which are the life stages between the egg and the adult ant.
In fact, scientists know about six of the sixteen species only from a few individuals caught in the area where the first ones were found, and they have not seen one species, the South American blind snake (Anomalepis aspinosus), since 1916.
Early Blind Snakes: Anomalepididae - Behavior And Reproduction
The family Anomalepididae was first established in 1939 by Edward H. Taylor after he discovered that snakes of the genus Anomalepis exhibit patterns of dentition and scalation that are significantly different from those seen in other blind-snakes.
In all species of Anomalepididae the snout is bluntly rounded in shape, and in all genera except Typhlophis the scales surrounding the snout are somewhat enlarged.
Anomalepididae is an exclusively Neotropical family, with an apparently discontinuous distribution in central and northern South America and southern Central America.
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