Epictini Rhinoleptini Epictinae (commonly called slender blind snakes or threadsnakes) are a subfamily of snakes found in the New World and equatorial Africa.

Members of this subfamily tend to have short, thick tails, and the fewest subcaudal scales.

It comprises two tribes, three subtribes, ten genera, and 86 species.

In the New World it ranges from North America (California, Utah, and Kansas) south through Middle and South America (exclusive of the high Andes) to Uruguay and Argentina on the Atlantic side.

It also occurs in equatorial Africa, from southern Senegal, Guinea, and Bioko Island in the west to Ethiopia in the east.