A new diminutive, long-tailed species of African wormsnake related to Leptotyphlops bicolor is described from Nigeria. The new species differs from L. bicolor by possessing a single anterior supralabial, a longer tail with fewer subcaudals, and the absence of brown pigment and an apical spine on the tail tip. The new species, which with L. bicolor, L. broadleyi, and L. sundewalli form the L. bicolor species group, shares characteristics with several New World taxa; these characteristics are probably plesiomorphic in the Old World radiation of Leptotyphlops.