NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Asia Minor Dwarf Racer
Eirenis modestus (Martin, 1838)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
An Eirenis modestus at Samos, Greece.
Benny Trapp · CC BY 3.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Eirenis modestus, commonly known as ring-headed dwarf snake or simply the Asia Minor dwarf racer, is a non-venomous species of snake in the Colubridae family. It is native to several Greek islands, Turkey, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Georgia and southwestern parts of the Russian Federation.
Wikipedia contributors, Eirenis modestus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:31:45.073331+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Eirenis modestus (Martin, 1838)
- Name authority
- (Martin, 1838)
- Common name
- Asia Minor Dwarf Racer
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Eirenis
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
- infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
- familyColubridae
- subfamilyColubrinae
- genusEirenis
- speciesEirenis modestus (Martin, 1838)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Eirenis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| African Dwarf SnakeEirenis africanus (Boulenger, 1914) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Baran Dwarf RacerEirenis barani Schmidtler, 1988 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Collared Dwarf RacerEirenis collaris (Ménétries, 1832) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis coronelloides (Jan, 1862) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| English common name not availableEirenis decemlineatus (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis lineomaculatus Schmidt, 1939 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis occidentalis Rajabizadeh, Nagy, Adriaens, Avci, Masroor, Schmidtler, Nazarov, Esmaeili & Christiaens, 2015 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Rechinger’s dwarf racerEirenis rechingeri Eiselt, 1971 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis thospitis Schmidtler & Lanza, 1990 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Dark-headed Dwarf RacerEirenis persicus (Anderson, 1872) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis rafsanjanicus Akbarpour, Rastegar-Pouyani, Fathinia & Rastegar-Pouyani, 2020 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Eirenis yassujicus Fathinia, Rastegar-Pouyani & Shafaeipour, 2019 | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Coronella modesta Martin, 1838 Martin, 1838 | synonym |
| Ablabes modestus var. semimaculata Boettger, 1876 Boettger, 1876 | synonym |
| Coluber nigricollis Dwigubsky, 1832 Dwigubsky, 1832 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Eirenis&species=modestus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:38W37. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.