Description: Size range not Known. The following size information is based on descriptions of Anniella pulchra before it was split into five species. 4+3/8 to 7 inches long from snout to vent. A small slender lizard with no legs, eyelids, a shovel-shaped snout, smooth shiny scales, and a blunt tail. Sometimes confused for a snake, but snakes have no eyelids. On close observation the presence of eyelids is apparent when this lizard blinks. Dorsum is pale olive dorsum. The sides are strong orange. Ventral color light gray. "a mid-dorsal black stripe one-third scale wide is present from the parietals to the tip of the tail; lateral black stripes one-third scale wide are present from the eye to the tip of the tail." Different from all other species of Anniella in having light grey ventral coloring "that is continuous from the insertion of the lower jaw to the end of the tail."

Habitat: Occurs in moist warm loose soil with plant cover. Moisture is essential. Occurs in sparsely vegetated areas of beach dunes, chaparral, pine-oak woodlands, desert scrub, sandy washes, and stream terraces with sycamores, cottonwoods, or oaks. Leaf litter under trees and bushes in sunny areas and dunes stabilized with bush lupine and mock heather often indicate suitable habitat. Often can be found under surface objects such as rocks, boards, driftwood, and logs. Can also be found by gently raking leaf litter under bushes and trees. Sometimes found in suburban gardens in Southern California.

Range: Known range includes 2 sites separated by (an unspecified extent of) continuous suitable habitat at the southeast base of the Temblor Range between McKittrick and Taft on the west side of the southern San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. All specimens have been found between California State Highway 33 and the Temblor Range; detailed searches, including multi-year use of cover boards, have failed to yield Anniella in apparent suitable habitat on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley east of Highway 33. Known elevational range is 375-413 meters

Found in these States: CA

Diet: Temblor legless lizards eat larval insects, adult beetles, termites and spiders.

Reproduction: Bears live young. Probably breeds between early spring and July, with 1 to 4 young (usually 2) born between September and November.

Status: Very small known range in southwestern San Joaquin Valley of California; known from 2 sites; fossorial and relatively difficulty to detect, so abundance is uncertain; regarded as rare pending further study; region is extensively disturbed by oil/gas development, but current trend in habitat is uncertain. In a 90 day petition finding, USFWS (2021) found that the petition to add this species to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife may be warranted.

Subspecies: None

Taxonomy: