Before I moved to South Carolina I lived in San Marcos, TX which is in the hill country of central Texas. San Marcos has a wide array of unique herps because of the aquifer that feeds the San Marcos river and the many surrounding caves; including the San Marcos Salamander (Eurycea nana) which lives only in this river. I worked in a veterinary office while attending school there. One day I saw a little worm crawling across the floor and just left it alone. A moment later the doctor picked up the "worm" and showed it to me. He explained to me that it was actually a Texas Blind Snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis). That snake was found indoors after a recent heavy rain. A few weeks later, after another heavy rain, I found this Texas Blind Snake in the entryway of my house on May 7, 2008. I picked it up and showed my mom, who was visiting at the time. She thought I had just picked up a worm, like I thought originally. I pointed out the blunt tail, evenly sized scales on it's entire body and lack of eyes. The first picture is of me holding the snake I found in my home. The second picture is one I found on the internet (uspesttexas.com) since the picture I have is not very clear. These snakes live underground which is why they are so wormlike with smooth, even scales and lack functional eyes. After a heavy rain, the soil is too wet and many of them can be found on drier ground (like floors of buildings).

(Vanessa Skinner, Charleston, SC)