Reptilia · Squamata
Erythrolamprus taeniogasterJan, 1863
Photograph by credits: Ivan L. Sampaio (A, B, C, E, K, L, M, N, O),…, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
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A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 738 mm snout to vent.
No English name has been recorded for this species.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Erythrolamprus
- Grows to
- 738mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 65% 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 133.8 to 2,790 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
30 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
- 2013
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 738mm2 ft 5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 118.4g4.2 oz
738 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016), Barbosa et al. 2022 (138 males SVL 419.2 ± 63.5 range 232–653 all mature by 380 mm "although 70% of them were mature at 305 mm"; 189 females mean 499.5 ± 70.3 260–738 mm and "females complete sexual maturity was reached only in individuals with SVL ≥ 405 mm")
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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 500m
- Range size
- 8,317,722km²
"predominantly piscivorous, actively foraging during the day, when they catch both inactive (nocturnal) and active (diurnal) prey.", and also many anurans (Barbosa et al. 2022)
"actively foraging during the day" (Barbosa et al. 2022)
Cathemeral (Feldman 2015), diurnal (da Frota et al. 2021, n = 2), "actively foraging during the day, when they catch both inactive (nocturnal) and active (diurnal) prey." (Barbosa et al. 2022)
(da Frota et al. 2021, n = 2), semi aquatic? "predominantly piscivorous, actively foraging during the day, when they catch both inactive (nocturnal) and active (diurnal) prey." (Barbosa et al. 2022)
IUCN (0 to 500)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 5
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–9eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.6eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
Barbosa et al. 2022 ("In sexually mature females, we recorded between one and nine follicles (n = 26, mean = 4.8 follicles) and eggs (n = 17, mean = 3.6 eggs)."
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Jan
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1863
- Type locality
- Brazil
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.
14kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 118 g, the heaviest recorded for Erythrolamprus taeniogaster — 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
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — 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
- — Body mass at hatching
- — 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
- — Venomous
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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 taeniogaster. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/erythrolamprus-taeniogaster
@misc{erythrolamprus_taeniogaster_2026,
title = {Erythrolamprus taeniogaster},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/erythrolamprus-taeniogaster}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.