The genus Erythrolamprus belongs to the subfamilyDipsadinae (which is sometimes referred to as the family Dipsadidae), belonging to the familyColubridae. Erythrolamprus previously contained just six species, mostly coral snake mimics. However, molecular studies beginning in 2009 determined that Erythrolamprus was not monophyletic, and thus most of the snakes of the genera Liophis, Leimadophis, and Umbrivaga were placed into Erythrolamprus, bringing the number of species up to 50.[1]
Erythrolamprus snakes are usually less than 1.6 m (5.2 ft) in length. They are ground snakes, with lifestyles ranging from fossorial (burrowing) to terrestrial to semi-aquatic, and in habitats ranging from rainforeststosavannas to the mountainous páramo, up to 3,500 m (11,500 ft) above sea level.[1]
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.[5]
^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).
^Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN0-7167-0020-4. (Mimicry in Erythrolamprus, p. 159).
Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. (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).
