Guess My Favorite Food

We head out of the American Southwest this week and migrate to Southeast Asia and the southern African scrublands, looking for snakes. These might be a bit hard to find—they like to hide underground.

This kind is small, with only two to four species depending on which scientists you talk to. Males and females are sexually dimorphic. In some species, the females get significantly larger than the males, though the males have longer tails.1

This kind is predatory, eating anything they can fit in their mouths. Frogs and lizards are on the menu, as are small mammals.2 In fact, this kind takes its name from one species’ fondness for small moles.

Anyone figure it out yet? This week’s kind is the Pseudaspididae, the mole snake kind. There is a dispute over whether Pseudaspididae is a sub-family or a family and how many species it contains. We used the smaller group when we did our Ark kinds study, and I have followed the same pattern here.

Mole Snake, Willem Van Zyl, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Try out this fun crossword!

Clue

Your clue for the next week is:

Next week, we move over to Central America looking for an insectivorous lizard kind found only in Mexico and Guatemala.

Ask a Question

Have you ever had a question about created kinds but didn’t know who to ask? Have you ever wanted to learn more about your favorite kind? Well, now you can! You can ask me, Inspector Barry Mins, a question! Have your parents help you fill out this form, and you might get your question answered in my column! If you have any questions about created kinds, feel free to send them my way!