Erythrolamprus

Erythrolamprus is a genus of colubrid snakes, commonly known as false coral snakes, native to Central America, and the northern part of South America. They appear to be coral snake mimics.

Erythrolamprus
Erythrolamprus almadensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Dipsadinae
Genus:	Erythrolamprus Wagler, 1830[1]
Synonyms[2][3]
Coluber, Coniophanes, Coronella, Elaps, Glaphyrophis, Natrix, Opheomorphus, Umbrivaga

Species

These species are currently recognized as being valid.[1]

• Erythrolamprus aesculapii (Linnaeus, 1766) – Aesculapian false coral snake
• Erythrolamprus albertguentheri (Grazziotin, Zaher, Murphy, Scrocchi, Benavides, Zhang & Bonatto, 1897) – Günther's green liophis
• Erythrolamprus almadensis (Wagler, 1824) – Almaden ground snake
• Erythrolamprus andinus (Dixon, 1983)
• Erythrolamprus atraventer (Dixon & Thomas, 1985) – Dixon's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus bizona Jan, 1863 – double-banded false coral snake
• Erythrolamprus breviceps (Cope, 1861) – short ground snake
• Erythrolamprus carajasensis (da Cunha, Nascimento & Ávila-Pires, 1985)
• Erythrolamprus ceii (Dixon, 1991)
• Erythrolamprus cobella (Linnaeus, 1758) – mangrove snake
• Erythrolamprus cursor (Lacépède, 1789) – Lacépède's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus dorsocorallinus (Esqueda, Natera, La Marca & Ilija-Fistar, 2007)
• Erythrolamprus epinephalus (Cope, 1862)
• Erythrolamprus festae (Peracca, 1897) – drab ground snake
• Erythrolamprus frenatus (F. Werner, 1909) – swamp liophis
• Erythrolamprus guentheri Garman, 1883
• Erythrolamprus ingeri (Roze, 1958)
• Erythrolamprus jaegeri (Günther, 1858) – Jaeger's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus janaleeae (Dixon, 2000)
• Erythrolamprus juliae (Cope, 1879) – Julia's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus macrosomus (Amaral, 1936)
• Erythrolamprus maryellenae (Dixon, 1985) – Maryellen's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus melanotus (Shaw, 1802) – Shaw's dark ground snake
• Erythrolamprus mertensi (Roze, 1964) – Mertens's tropical forest snake
• Erythrolamprus miliaris (Linnaeus, 1758) – military ground snake
• Erythrolamprus mimus (Cope, 1868) – mimic false coral snake
• Erythrolamprus mossoroensis (Hoge & Lima-Verde, 1973)
• Erythrolamprus ocellatus W. Peters, 1868 – Tobago false coral snake
• Erythrolamprus oligolepis (Boulenger, 1905)
• Erythrolamprus ornatus (Garman, 1887) – Saint Lucia racer, ornate ground snake
• Erythrolamprus perfuscus (Cope, 1862) – tan ground snake, Barbados racer
• Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus (Wied-Neuwied, 1825)
• Erythrolamprus pseudocorallus Roze, 1959
• Erythrolamprus pseudoreginae Murphy, BrasweLL, Charles, Auguste, Rivas, Borzee, Lehtinen, & Jowers, 2019 Tobago stream snake
• Erythrolamprus pyburni (Markezich & Dixon, 1979) – Pyburn's tropical forest snake
• Erythrolamprus pygmaeus (Cope, 1868) – Amazon tropical forest snake
• Erythrolamprus reginae (Linnaeus, 1758) – royal ground snake
• Erythrolamprus rochai Ascenso, Costa, & Prudente, 2019
• Erythrolamprus sagittifer (Jan, 1863) – arrow ground snake
• Erythrolamprus semiaureus (Cope, 1862)
• Erythrolamprus subocularis (Boulenger, 1902)
• Erythrolamprus taeniogaster (Jan, 1866)
• Erythrolamprus taeniurus (Tschudi, 1845) – thin ground snake
• Erythrolamprus torrenicola (Donnelly & C. Myers, 1991) – velvety swamp snake
• Erythrolamprus trebbaui (Roze, 1958)
• Erythrolamprus triscalis (Linnaeus, 1758) – three-scaled ground snake
• Erythrolamprus typhlus (Linnaeus, 1758) – blind ground snake, velvet swamp snake
• Erythrolamprus viridis (Günther, 1862) – crown ground snake
• Erythrolamprus vitti (Dixon, 2000) – Vitt's ground snake
• Erythrolamprus williamsi (Roze, 1958) – Williams' ground snake
• Erythrolamprus zweifeli (Roze, 1959) – Zweifel's ground snake

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Erythrolamprus.

Mimicry

The brightly colored, ringed patterns of some of the snakes of the genus Erythrolamprus resemble those of sympatric coral snakes of the genus Micrurus, and it has been suggested that this is due to mimicry. Whether this is classical Batesian mimicry, classical Müllerian mimicry, a modified form of Müllerian mimicry, or no mimicry at all, remains to be proven.[4]

Cited references

1. "Erythrolamprus ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
2. Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ) ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Genus Erythrolamprus, pp. 199-200).
3. "Erythrolamprus ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
4. Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0020-4. (Mimicry in Erythrolamprus, p. 159).

Further reading

• Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Liophis atraventer, p. 73; L. guentheri, p. 111; L. jaegeri, p. 132; l. juliae, p. 137; L. melanotus, p. 241; Umbrivaga mertensi, p. 176; Geophis pyburni, p. 213; Liophis williamsi, p. 286; L. reginae zweifeli, p. 294).
• Wagler, J[G] (1830). Natürliches System der AMPHIBIEN, mit vorangehender Classification der SAÜGTHIERE und VÖGEL. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Zoologie. Munich, Stuttgart, and Tübingen: J.G. Cotta. vi + 354 pp. (Erythrolamprus, new genus, p. 187). (in German and Latin).