Wormlizard
Gymnophthalmus underwoodi Grant, 1958
Status not recordedlizards
The wormlizard (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi) is a species in the family Gymnophthalmidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh 1.13 g to 1.2 g and reach 3.8 cm in length.
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Quick facts about the wormlizard
- Weight
- 1.13 g – 1.2 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- 3.8 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1 – 6src for Young per litter or clutch
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the wormlizard?
Where does the wormlizard live?
Not recorded
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the wormlizard as introduced in 9 countries, and flagged as invasive in 1 of them.
- Sint Maarteninvasive
- Antigua & Barbuda
- Barbados
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- St. Kitts & Nevis
- St. Martin
Also listed for parts of: France (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, invasive).
Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).
Is the wormlizard endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the wormlizard classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyGymnophthalmidae
- genusGymnophthalmus
- SpeciesGymnophthalmus underwoodi Grant, 1958
Other names and names in other languages (11)
- Smooth WormlizardEnglish
- Smooth-scaled TeguletEnglish
- Underwcod's Spectaded teguEnglish
- Underwood's spectacled teguEnglish
- Underwood's Spectaded teguEnglish
- Underwood’s spectacled teguEnglish
- Glatskællet BrilletejuDanish
- Gymnophthalme d'UnderwoodFrench
- Gymnophthalme d'Underwood (Le)French
- Underwood's briltejuDutch
- Гимнофтальмус АндервудаRussian
Relatives of the wormlizard
Other species in the same genus Gymnophthalmus.
Striped spectacled tegu
Gymnophthalmus lineatus
Golden Tegulet
Gymnophthalmus speciosus
Cryptic spectacled tegu
Gymnophthalmus cryptus
White Spectacied tegu
Gymnophthalmus leucomystax
Roraima tegu
Gymnophthalmus vanzoi
Rough-scaled Tegulet
Gymnophthalmus pleii
CompareWormlizard vs Striped spectacled teguWormlizard vs Golden TeguletWormlizard vs Cryptic spectacled teguWormlizard vs White Spectacied tegu
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the wormlizard?
An adult wormlizard weighs 1.13 g – 1.2 g and measures 3.8 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the wormlizard an invasive species?
In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the wormlizard as invasive in 1 country: Sint Maarten. It lists it as introduced in 9 in all.
What kind of animal is the wormlizard?
The wormlizard (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi) belongs to the family Gymnophthalmidae in the order Squamata.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Wormlizard (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/wormlizard
“Wormlizard (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/wormlizard.
@misc{wormlizard_2026,
title = {Wormlizard (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/wormlizard},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}