What does the worlds's smallest snake eat?

Question

I just saw a pic on yahoo of a snake curled up on a quarter. It's tiny! I've seen longer, thicker earthworms! Adult snakes of this species are full grown at 4 inches. What could they possibly eat? All the usual bugs are bigger than they are, and all other reptiles too.

Answer 1

I found a baby garter snake yesterday that was smaller than most earthworms. Here, they hatch at the same time as crickets do, so there are plenty of extremely tiny crickets coming out just as they get hungry for the first time.

Answer 2

I heard on NPR that they eat insect larva.

This Discovery Channel page says "tiny larva of termites and ants" http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/04...

Answer 3

smallest species of snake



Leptotyphlops carlae"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico | An American scientist said Sunday he had discovered the globe’s tiniest species of snake in the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados. Full-grown adults typically stretch less than 4 inches long.

S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University, said the snake was found slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian forest.

Hedges said the snake, which is so diminutive it can curl up on a U.S. quarter, is the smallest of the roughly 3,100 known species of snakes. It will be introduced to the scientific world today in the journal Zootaxa.

The Barbadian snake apparently eats termites and insect larvae, but nothing is yet known of its ecology and behavior. Genetic tests identified the snake as a new species, Hedges said. It is not venomous.

Answer 4

World's smallest snake discovered -  Leptotyphlops carlae

The spaghetti-thin snake was found on Barbados by a man with a knack for discovering tiny species

Breaking News 13:00 03 August 2008

The snake, which is not venomous, eats termites and termite larvae, but little is known about its behavior

Answer 5

It is called a worm snake, and it eats mainly earthworms.