Amazonian snail-eater

The cockroach living room disappeared. 

Art

Goal for the week 18hrs

Today work on the sphinx

Animal

Photo by James I Watling

The Amazonian snail-eater (Dipsas indica) is a small snake from tropical South America. They have unusual eating habits in that they specialize in slugs and snails. To find their mollusk they generally find a slime trail via chemoreception and follow it. The teeth on their lower jaw are long and well adapted to help them deal with viscous prey. For snails they will constrict the snail and then use their lower jaws to work snails out of their shells. They also have a serous gland in their lower jaw which may secrete a substance that helps them in removing snails from their shells. It is also thought that with their unusual jaw structure that they can triangulate their head to resemble a more dangerous snake like the pitviper Bothrops jararaca.