Otherwise known as a glass snake. My cats used to catch them and chew the tail off but it regrows like a lizard.

My cats prefer the ring neck snakes. Found two in the house this morning.

Cliff - nice job with the pictures!

Kate, your cats are on track with mine....they bring em to me like presents. Small ring necks occasionally get under the rubber stops on the pool cage doors. I hear all this mewling and they are saying "Mommy, we brought you a present"!

Cliff, you got it! Correct common name, Eastern Glass Lizard or Ophiosaurus ventralis. Here's what one website had to say:

To those not familiar with them, glass lizards in the genus Ophiosaurus (literally, snake [ophio-] -lizard [saurus]) look rather like a snake with ears and blinking eyes. Careful inspection of the vent area in some species will show tiny spurs, similar to a boa or python. Related to the alligator lizards (Gerrhonotus), their head and body shape are reminiscent of those species, including the conical teeth and lateral fold. They are very un-snakelike when held, being firm in the body like an alligator lizard or large skink, rather than the softly supple body associated with snakes.

I agree with all of that. (Okay, I didn't know the part about the conical teeth!) They are just not nearly so slinky as snakes, but they are wonderful creatures in their own rights. Laura, your cats didn't even need to chew off their tails. The tail will break right off when they are picked up by it, or a predator grabs it. That's where the term "glass snake" or "glass lizard" comes from. And they do, indeed, regenerate a new one, usually shorter and often a different color. (Guess that Limb Regeneration thing isn't perfected yet...hehe)

Nice pictures, Cliff...hit the "Enter" between them next time, and they will line up under each other, so they don't stretch out so far.

Thanks for sharing!

Marcia

MaNature,

I use a Mac. I did press enter between the pics. Maybe they load differently on a PC? Not sure what you mean about them stretching so far?

Thanks, Cliff

The pix are under each other on my monitor - very nice 1s they are 2 = )

Hiya, Cliff...oh gosh...wonder why they are all right next to each other for me? Touching each other, and the posts are all stretched out in a long, one sentence line so that I have to scroll sideways to read them. I've never had that happen before, so I figured you just didn't put them on separate lines. SORRY, Cliff!! It must be something in the translation between your Mac and my PC. *hangs head, and scuffles toe in dirt* Shoulda known you wouldn't make a mistake like that!!

ANYWAY...I love the pictures, no matter HOW they show up for me. I'm glad you recognized this guy and got to take a good look at him. Cool!!

Marcia

MaNature,
No Harm. No Foul. That's odd how you had to scroll sideways to see them. Sorry. If I made a mistake somehow I would be more than happy to learn from it. : )

The little guy's head is shaped like the Monorail. lol

Thanks,
Cliff

pictures show up just fine on my computer too. each one below the prior one.

Maybe if you use a
code after each picture it'll skip a space.

Love the lizard! Very neat indeed!

dudes! I didn't even know there was more than one pix! I see it NOW. All this sideways stuff is weird!

Great pics Freak, all lined up nice and str8, 3 of em.

Wow, I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I got an email today with the same thing in it, so I thought it was MY computer acting up. How strange that it happened for some of us and not for others. I have no idea what might cause it, though.

Marcia

Hi Marcia,

I know YOU didnt fall off the turnip truck when it comes to PCs so I started to look into this. While I dont have an answer as yet, I do KNOW that IE fails here and does how you describe while FireFox displays the pics as expected.

I rarely use IE anymore and tried every option I could think of that pertains to the problem and none make a difference.

Tony

Boy, that's interesting, Tony. I've always meant to try Firefox, and never did yet. So you are saying the page loads and views correctly for you with it, but not when you
view it with IE? I'll bet it IS a Mac thing, like Cliff suggested, but that some older IE browsers are not correcting it, and Firefox does. (I haven't updated IE in awhile.) It's the only time it's happened for me, but I'm going to be on the alert, in cases it happens again. I may just have to give Firefox a try.

Thanks for the info!
Marcia

Hi Marcia,

most folks dont usually go back to IE once they try and get used to FF. Give it a shot, its free. LInk is below.

I tried every option I could think of in IE and it wouldnt display properly.

Here is a link that might be useful: click here for FF

I use Safari and FireFox.

Cool pix! I have them like Ma~ I need to scroll sideways to view them.
Kat

I have to scroll to the right too.
Great close up pictures, Cliff. If you had not stated it was a lizard I would have thought it was a snake. Looked like a snake to me.
Thanks for the lesson.

The credit goes to "MaNature", who I first learned about it from her from someone else's post. I had also ran across one when I was planting a Palm. I thought it was a snake at first too.

Then I opened the backdoor to let the dogs go tinkle that Saturday morning and there it was on the patio. : )

Cliff

I found one today that looks much like the one in the pictures, except that it has vestigial legs (both front and back). I live in Southern California. It isn't moving quickly, though it's a little cool (I'm not wearing a jacket but I am in long sleeves). Maybe 65 degrees out?

It's maybe 5 inches long. I first mistook it for an earthworm, but then I noticed that it wasn't moving much, and that it was a little thicker. Then I noticed eyes and legs! I haven't been able too find a picture, so I will try to post one here.

Anyone know what it is?

California has a whole bunch of different reptiles from Florida, and I'm pretty sure that some of the "legless lizards" from that region have vestigal (also spelled "vestigial") legs. Perhaps you have found a kind of skink? A photo would be really helpful, but you could do a Google search for images of legless lizards and skinks with vestigal legs.

Good luck!
Marcia (who would bet money that whatever it is, it's completely harmless)

Love the pics...My 5y/o just asked if we could have a legless lizard...
I've come across something in my garden called a "brahmini blind snake" that looks a lot like an earthworm at first, but is a very small snake. That might be in California as well. Worth looking up just for fun & knowledge!

Shelbey