Typhlops brame Indotyphlops braminus

Description

Morphologie. Serpent non-venimeux de petite taille Le corps est fin et de couleur gris argenté, noir ou violet. La tête est peu différenciée du reste du corps, et les yeux apparaissent sous la forme de point noirs sous les écailles. La queue présente un éperon inoffensif à sa pointe. La face ventrale varie du gris au marron, et les écailles sont indifférenciées de celles du reste du corps. Les écailles sont petites, lisses et brillantes, et sont agencées sur 14 rangées le long du corps (Wallach, 2009).

Taille corporelle standard (longueur tête-tronc). 95 à 203 mm (Ota et al., 1991; Wallach, 2009; Das et al., 2016; Leets-Rodriguez et al., 2019).

Dimorphisme sexuel. Pas de dimorphisme sexuel (espèce unisexuée) (Ota et al., 1991).

Variations.

Confusion possible avec d’autres espèces. Dans les Caraïbes, la confusion est possible avec d’autres espèces de serpents endémiques de petite taille, tels que Tetracheilostoma bilineatum en Martinique, T. breuili à Sainte-Lucie et T. carlae à La Barbade. Ces trois espèces sont les plus petits serpents du monde (Breuil et al., 2009).

Distribution

Native. Asie: Pakistan (Balouch et al., 2016; Rais et al., 2021), Nepal (Bhattarai et al., 2018; Rawat et al., 2020), Bhoutan (Das et al., 2016), Inde (Manhas et al., 2018; Ingle et al., 2019; Ingle, 2020), Sri Lanka, Îles Andaman-et-Nicobar, Bangladesh (Ahsan et al., 2015), Myanmar, Thaïlande (Crane et al., 2018), Malaisie (Onn et al., 2009), Singapour, Laos, Cambodge (Grismer et al., 2008; Geissler et al., 2019), Vietnam (Ziegler et al., 2007), Chine, Hong Kong, Japon, Indonésie, Timor Leste, Philippines (Brown et al., 1996; Venturina et al., 2020).

Introduit. Europe: Madère, Canaries (Rato et al., 2015), Espagne (Zamora-Camacho et al., 2017), Baléares, Italie (Faraone et al., 2019; Paolino et al., 2019), Malte (Vella et al., 2020).

Asie: Arabie Saoudite (Burriel-Carranza et al., 2019), Oman (Carranza et al., 2018), Emirats Arabes Unis, Koweït, Liban, Irak, Iran (Rastegar-Pouyani et al., 2008; Afroosheh et al., 2010).

Afrique: Libye (Bauer et al., 2017), Égypte (Ibrahim, 2013), Mauritanie, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Bénin, Cameroun, Gabon (Pauwels et al., 2004), République Centrafricaine (Chirio et Ineich, 2006), République Démocratique du Congo (Zassi-Boulou et al., 2004), Ouganda, Kenya, Somalie, Zimbabwe, Tanzanie, Zanzibar, Mozambique, Afrique du Sud, Madagascar (Andreone et al., 2003; D’Cruze et al., 2007; Gehring et al., 2010), Comores (Carretero et al., 2005; Hawlitschek et al., 2011), Mayotte, Réunion, Maurice, Rodrigues, Seychelles.

Océanie: Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée (Charlton et Nixon, 2020), Îles Salomon, Palaos, Nauru (McKenna et al., 2015), Australie (Parkin et al., 2021), Île Cocos, Île Christmas, Nouvelle Calédonie (De Pous et Dingemans, 2009), Vanuatu (Ineich, 2009), Fiji, Micronésie, Guam, Polynésie (Ineich et al., 2017).

Amérique: Hawaï, Californie, Arizona, Texas (Eversole et Daniel, 2020), Louisiane, Massachussetts, Connecticut, Georgie, Floride (Krysko et al., 2009; Atkinson et Townsend, 2012; Burke et Lieto, 2019), Mexique (Flores-Cobarrubias et al., 2012; Carbajal-Marquez et al., 2013, 2015; Carbajal-Marquez et Quintero-Diaz, 2016; Banuelos-Alamillo et Carbajal-Marquez, 2016; Gonzales-Sanchez et al., 2017; Lemos-Espinal et Smit, 2020), Guatemala, Bélize (Wallach, 2009), Nicaragua (Leets-Rodriguez et al., 2019), Salvador, Honduras (Wallach, 2009; McCranie, 2015), Colombie.

Caraïbes: Bahamas (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Cuba (Borroto-Paez et al., 2012), Îles Cayman (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Îles Turks et Caïques (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Sainte Croix (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Anguilla (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Saint Martin (Breuil et al., 2009; Lorvelec et al., 2007), Saint Barthélemy (Lorvelec et al., 2007), Saba (van den Burg, 2021), Saint Kitts (Powell et Henderson, 2012), Saint Eustache, Montserrat (Snyder et al., 2019), Guadeloupe (Breuil et al., 2009; Powell et Henderson, 2012; Lorvelec et al., 2016), Martinique, Barbade (Powell et Henderson, 2012); Saint Vincent et les Grenadines (Powell et Henderson, 2012).

Statut incertain. Taïwan (Lee et al., 2019)

Biologie et écologie

Habitat. Indotyhlops braminus est adapté à une grande diversité d’habitats naturels et anthropisés. Ce serpent fouisseur évolue dans les sols meubles et humides, la litière de feuilles, les troncs en décomposition, sous les rochers et autres débris. L’espèce est occasionnellement arboricole. I. braminus est souvent retrouvé dans les jardin et les pots de fleurs, les pépinières étant considérées comme le principal moyen de propagation de l’espèce hors de son aire de répartition (Breuil et al., 2009; Rato et al., 2015; Zamora-Camacho, 2017).

Régime alimentaire. Insectivore (œufs, larves et pupes de fourmis et termites) (Mizuno et Kojima, 2015).

Reproduction. Indotyphlops braminus est une espèce parthénogénétique, c’est-à-dire que les femelles pondent des œufs se développant sans la nécessité d’être fécondés.

Les femelle matures (environ 95 mm) pondent un à huit œufs (Ota et al., 1991). La période de ponte varie en fonction de la localité. Dans les régions sub-tropicale, elle a lieu à la fin de la saison humide (Vella et al., 2020).

Comportement. Lorsque menacée ou manipulée, l’espèce se défend en repoussant la menace à l’aide de la pointe de sa queue (inoffensive), et peut libérer un musc nauséabond produit via deux glandes à la base de la queue.

Impact et gestion des populations introduites

Impact. L’impact du Typhlops brame sur les écosystèmes natifs des régions d’introduction reste méconnu.

Gestion. Aucune mesure de contrôle ciblée n’est à ce jour établie dans les différentes régions d’introduction de l’espèce.

Bibliographie

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