This snake possesses a vestigial pelvic girdle that is visible as a pair of cloacal spurs.

[4] This species is found in the Amazon rainforest of South America, the Guianas, and Trinidad and Tobago.

[5] It is reported to be ovoviviparous and feeds on beetles, caecilians (burrowing legless amphibians), amphisbaenids or worm lizards (legless lizards), small fossorial snakes, fish (particularly swamp eels), and frogs.

[7] It has a cylindrical body of uniform diameter and a very short tail; it is brightly banded in red and black and its reduced eyes lie beneath large head scales.

[1] Modern classifications restrict the family to the South American pipe snake or false coral snake (Anilius scytale), with the previously included Asian genus Cylindrophis raised to a separate family, Cylindrophiidae.