THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Rhineuridae  

Florida Wormlizard
Rhineura floridana (Baird, 1859 “1858”)
ry-NUR-ah — flor-ih-DAY-nuh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.11.20.08.43.09)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.11 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Florida Georgia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its region of origin.
Rhineura — From Greek rhine (ῥίς), “nose,” and oura (οὐρά), “tail”—possibly meaning “nose-tail,” an allusion to the body’s uniform, worm-like shape where head and tail look similar.
floridana — Latinized geographic adjective meaning “from Florida,” indicating the species’ endemic range in the state.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Ground Worm (Rhineura floridana: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Thunder Worm (Rhineura floridana: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Florida Worm Lizard (Rhineura floridana: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1859 "1858" Baird, Spencer F. Description of new genera and species of North American lizards in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 10:253-256
1967 Gans, Carl Rhineura. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (42):1-2
1967 Gans, Carl Rhineura floridana. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (43):1-2
1968 Zug, George R. Geographic variation in Rhineura floridana (Reptilia: Amphisbaenidae). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 12(4):185-211
2004 Macey, J. Robert, Theodore J. Papenfuss, Jennifer V. Kuehl, H. Mathew Fourcade and Jeffrey L. Boore. Phylogenetic relationships among amphisbaenian reptiles based on complete mitochondrial genomic sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33(1):22-31
2005 Mulvaney, Abigail, Todd A. Castoe, Kyle G. Ashton, Kenneth L. Krysko, and Christopher L. Parkinson. Evidence of population genetic structure within the Florida Worm Lizard, Rhineura floridana (Amphisbaenia: Rhineuridae). Journal of Herpetology 39(1):118-124

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:58 CT