Legless Lizards
There are approximately eighty species of legless lizards and they belong to the Anguidae family. Most live in South, Central and North America, although there are two species that are found elsewhere. These are the “Slow Worm” and the European legless lizards, which are also known as glass lizards. The European legless lizard is found from the Balkans to the Istria Peninsula in Italy and in the northeastern part of Bulgaria. In addition, this legless lizard can be found in parts of southwest and central Asia.
Although legless lizards are a member of the Anguidae family, not every lizard in this family is legless. Many have the usual four limbs of other lizards. Legless lizards do look a lot like snakes. But if you look more closely you will see that they have scales on their bellies and moveable eyelids. They also are of the species of lizards who can drop off or break off their tail when in danger. They are often killed as snakes because they look so unlike other lizards.
Most of these legless lizards are either brown or green, and live in dry regions. They are often found among rocks or piles of stone. Their favorite foods are insects, eggs, snails, mice, birds, earthworms and any piece of meat they can find. Hard-shelled snails are a favorite meal. Their length varies from fourteen inches to four feet.
The four-foot lizard that was recorded was a European legless lizard or glass lizard. Their average size is two to three feet and they normally weigh between and eleven and twenty-one ounces. The longest life ever recorded of a glass lizard was fifty-four years by one in captivity. That was a male--females have a very short lifespan.
Legless lizards reproduce from the time they are two to three years old. They are divided about 50/50 as to those who reproduce via eggs and those who bear live young. They are three to six inches long when born. The mother legless lizard does not stay with the young but leaves them on their own after birth to learn to hunt for themselves.
Legless lizards are given the name glass lizard because when they are pursed by a predator and drop their tail it breaks into many pieces like glass. The predator then sees several pieces of wiggling lizard and does not know which one is the real lizard. This confusion gives the legless lizard time to escape. The tail is also two-thirds of the length of the lizard, leaving a much smaller lizard afterwards. They will grow back another tail which they can use again in the same way by dropping it off for protection.