Black-backed Snake

About the Black-backed Snake

Shaw's dark ground snake (Erythrolamprus melanotus), also known commonly as Shaw's black-backed snake, and in Spanish as candelilla, guarda caminos, and reinita cazadora, is a species of snake in the subfamily Dipsadinae of the family Colubridae. The species is native to northern South America.

The English common names for Erythrolamprus melanotus refer to English biologist George Kearsley Shaw, who described and named this snake as a species new to science in 1802. Erythrolamprus melanotus belongs to the genus Erythrolamprus, which contains over 50 species. The genus Erythrolamprus belongs to the subfamily Dipsadinae, which is sometimes referred to as the family Dipsadidae. The relationships of Erythrolamprus species located in northern South America (Venezuela) can be shown in the cladogram below, based on molecular DNA analysis:

Erythrolamprus melanotus grows to a total length (tail included) of 43 cm (17 in). Dorsally, it has a light yellow or pinkish color, with a wide, dark vertebral stripe, which is bordered on each side by a thin whitish stripe, followed by a thin dark stripe. The top of the head is olive, and there is a... Wikipedia →