We should cherish the little legless lizard in our gardens, as much for their extraordinary lives as for the help they offer in removing pests, says Kevin Parr
The slow worm is curiously named. While it might not be the swiftest of movers, Anguis fragilis is no slouch, and no more a ‘worm’ than it is a snake, for which it is often mistaken. Instead, it is a species of lizard that has evolved without legs.
A fondness for burrowing into loose soil and nosing through dense cover or long grasses has made the use of legs redundant, but the presence of bony plates called osteoderms beneath the scales hinders their ability to slither with great speed or ease. Instead, they rely on camouflage or, more usually, the use of cover. Slow worms are cold-blooded but rarely bask in direct sunlight, preferring to hide beneath logs or rocks or within rotting vegetation where they take warmth from their surroundings.
Despite their rather secretive existence, slow worms are probably the most frequently encountered British reptile. They are often found in gardens, particularly by compost heaps or leaf piles, and a tendency to stay still if discovered enables us to get a closeup view. Females are normally darker, with dark stripes along the sides, whereas the paler males develop blue spots that are vivid in spring when they are looking to breed. Both sexes grow to a length of around 50cm and the scales are smooth and dry to the touch.
Whereas a snake’s eye is fixed open, with the covering a part of the skin, a slow worm, being a lizard, has eyelids and is able to blink. The eyes themselves are small, a likely reason for the alternative name of ‘blind worm’, and while they function perfectly well, the slow worm is also reliant upon its dark, notched tongue as a sensory organ. It can ‘taste’ airborne chemicals to identify the presence of predators, prey and potential mates.
SPRING FEVER
The hormonal stirrings of spring can spark less docile behaviour than might usually be associated with the slow worm. Males, wearing their lapis lazuli blue spots, will show increased aggression to one another as they compete for a mate, while the mating process itself may appear excessively violent. During a process that may last several hours, the male will grab the female’s head or neck in its mouth as the two copulate – a behaviour familiar in other lizard species. The female may subsequently carry
