The Barbados racer (''Erythrolamprus perfuscus''), also commonly known as the tan ground snake, was a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

colubrid Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ever ...

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

that was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

. It is now extinct.

History

This species was often believed to be the snake described by

Richard Ligon Richard Ligon (1585?–1662), an English author, lost his fortune as a royalist during the English Civil War (1642-1651), and during this turbulent time in England he found himself, as he notes in his narrative, a "stranger in my own country ...

in his "''A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes''" (1657):

"Having done with Beasts and Birds, we will enquire what other lesser Animalls or Insects there are upon the Iland, of which, Snakes are the chiefe, because the largest; and I have seen some of those a yard and a halfe long."

Conservation status

It is believed to be extinct, as there has not been a confirmed sighting since 1961. Habitat loss is believed to have caused its decline, particularly the land clearance and pesticide use associated with tree crops.

Description

It grew to a total length of , which included a tail long. Boulenger, G.A. 1894. ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ.'' Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, Printers.) London. xi + 382 pp. + Plates I.- XX. (''Liophis perfuscus'', p. 133.) It was colored brown with lighter sides, and light lateral stripes to the rear..

Habitat, behavior, and diet

It probably lived in

mesic habitat In ecology, a mesic habitat is a type of habitat with a moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture Moisture is the presence of a liquid, especially water, often in trace amounts. Small amounts of water may be found, for example, in the air ( ...

s, and actively foraged during the day for lizards and frogs.

Footnotes

References

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External links

*
''Liophis perfuscus''
at the

Encyclopedia of Life The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of no ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2382472 Erythrolamprus Snakes of the Caribbean Reptiles of Barbados Endemic fauna of Barbados Reptiles described in 1862 Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope Taxonomy articles created by Polbot