Reptilia · Squamata
Erythrolamprus aesculapiiLinnaeus, 1758
Aesculapian False Coral Snake
Photograph by Wallembergsousa, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A day-active, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 113 cm nose to tail.
Also called South American False Coralsnake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Erythrolamprus
- Grows to
- 1130mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
Longer than 77% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
34 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1005mm3 ft 4 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1130mm3 ft 8 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 260.4g9.2 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 5.8g0.2 oz
927 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), ("mean SVL = 598 mm; range 580– 615 mm; N = 3", "It reaches sexual maturity with at least 635 mm SVL in females and 430 mm in males (Marques 1996).") Fiorillo et al. 2021, Cabral et al. 2022 (max Total length 1130 mm, Max SVL: 1005 mm), Cabral et al. 2022 (max total length 1130 mm; max SVL 1005 mm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 10–1200m
- Range size
- 12,411,411km²
carnivore (see Pinto‐Coelho et al. 2021), snakes (Fiorillo et al. 2021)
Rahhal et al. 2023
Feldman 2015, Fiorillo et al. 2021, da Frota et al. 2021
Fossorial&Terrestrial (O'Shea 2018), Cryptic & terrestrial (Fiorillo et al. 2021), terrestrial (Cabral et al. 2022)
10-1200 (Señaris & Rojas-Runjaic 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 4.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–8eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.5eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
mean 4.5 (Meiri et al. 2019), max=5 (O'Shea 2011, O'Shea 2018), 3-8 (Fiorillo et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Erythrolamprus aesculapii aesculapii (LINNAEUS 1758) Erythrolamprus aesculapii monozona JAN 1863 Erythrolamprus aesculapii tetrazona JAN 1863 Erythrolamprus aesculapii venustissimus (WIED 1821)
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
3 ft 8 in × 22 in × 2 ft 9 in(113 × 57 × 85 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 22 in (57 cm) deep.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 3 ft 8 in (1130 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Aesculapian False Coral Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
28kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 260 g, the heaviest recorded for Aesculapian False Coral Snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Colubridae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Erythrolamprus aesculapii. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/erythrolamprus-aesculapii
@misc{erythrolamprus_aesculapii_2026,
title = {Erythrolamprus aesculapii},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/erythrolamprus-aesculapii}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.