Shaw's 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 family Colubridae. The species is native to northern South America.
The English common names for E. melanotus refer to English biologist George Kearsley Shaw, who described and named this snake as a species new to science in 1802.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
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starts withE. melanotus grows up to a total length (including tail) 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 dark stripe passing through the eye. The upper labials and the venter (underside) of the snake are whitish.
The dorsal scales are smooth, with apical pits, and are arranged in 17 rows at midbody.
The geographic distribution of E. melanotus includes Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is probably extirpated from Grenada.
The preferred natural habitats of E. melanotus are freshwater wetlands, forest, and savanna, at altitudes up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft).
E. melanotus actively forages during the day for food, which may include fish, amphibians, and lizards.
E. melanotus is oviparous.
