The Cairo blind snake (Myriopholis cairi) is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Leptotyphlopidae.McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. (series). (volume). The species is endemic to Africa.
Geographic range M. cairi is found in Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and possibly in Libya. www.reptile-database.org.
Etymology The specific name, cairi, commemorates the city of Cairo, Egypt. The specific name of the junior synonymy, Stenostoma fitzingeri, commemorates Austrian herpetologist Leopold Fitzinger.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Leptotyphlops cairi and L. fitzingeri, p. 46).
Habitat The preferred natural habitat of M. cairi is shrubland, at altitudes from sea level to , and it is also found in moist cultivated areas.
Diet M. cairi preys upon small invertebrates.
Reproduction M. cairi is oviparous.
References
Further reading Adalsteinsson SA, Branch WR, Trape S, Vitt LJ, Hedges SB (2009). "Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of snakes of the Family Leptotyphlopidae (Reptilia, Squamata)". Zootaxa 2244: 1-50. (Myriopholis cairi, new combination). Boulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families Typhlopidæ, Glauconiidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (Glauconia cairi, pp. 65–66). Duméril A-M-C, Bibron G (1844). Erpétologie générale ou Histoire naturelle complète des Reptiles, Tome sixième. Paris: Roret. xii + 609 pp. (Stenostoma cairi, new species, pp. 323–325). (in French).