Description: When adult, C. a. helenae is small and wormlike, rarely growing longer than 9.8 inches in total length (including tail). It is plain dark brown on top and light pink on its underside.

The scalation on the anterior dorsal surface of the head is distinctive. Instead of having a pair of internasals and a pair of prefrontals, as are found in most snakes including other subspecies of C. amoenus, the midwestern worm snake has each internasal fused with its corresponding prefrontal. As a result, in the space between the rostral and the frontal, C. a. helenae has two large head shields, one on the left and one on the right, instead of the usual four smaller shields.

Habitat: The habitat consists of mesic, wooded or partially wooded areas (hardwood or pine), often along edges or ecotones, such as near wetlands or margins of farm fields, and often in hilly areas but sometimes in flatwoods. This snake occurs in loose damp soil, under surface cover or leaf litter, or in rotted logs; it goes deep underground during cold or dry weather.

Range: The subspecies C. a. helenae ranges from southern Ohio to northern Georgia in the east and from southern Illinois to eastern Louisiana in the west.

Found in these States: AL | AR | GA | IL | IN | KY | LA | OH | TN | VA

Diet: It spends its life burrowing in moist soil or under the leaf litter searching for soft-bodied prey, with a preference for earthworms.

Reproduction: Eggs are laid under rocks, in rotting logs, stumps, or sawdust piles.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: