NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Saint Lucia Groundsnake
Erythrolamprus ornatus (Garman, 1887)
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.
Open encyclopedia reference
Erythrolamprus ornatus, also known commonly as the ornate ground snake and the Saint Lucia racer, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to the eastern Caribbean. It is the rarest snake on earth with fewer than 20 left in the wild.
Wikipedia contributors, Erythrolamprus ornatus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:35:27.187929+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Erythrolamprus ornatus (Garman, 1887)
- Name authority
- (Garman, 1887)
- Common name
- Saint Lucia Groundsnake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Colubridae
- Genus
- Erythrolamprus
- 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
- subfamilyDipsadinae
- genusErythrolamprus
- speciesErythrolamprus ornatus (Garman, 1887)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Erythrolamprus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Günther’s Green LiophisErythrolamprus albertguentheri (Grazziotin, Zaher, Murphy, Scrocchi, Benavides, Zhang & Bonatto, 2012) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Almaden Ground SnakeErythrolamprus almadensis (Wagler, 1824) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Erythrolamprus andinus (Dixon, 1983) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Long Ground Snake [longiventris]Erythrolamprus breviceps (Cope, 1860) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Erythrolamprus carajasensis (Cunha, Nascimento & Ávila-Pires, 1985) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Drab Ground SnakeErythrolamprus festae (Peracca, 1897) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Swamp LiophisErythrolamprus frenatus (Werner, 1909) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Erythrolamprus ingeri (Roze, 1958) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Julia's Ground SnakeErythrolamprus juliae (Cope, 1879) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Maryellen's Ground SnakeErythrolamprus maryellenae (Dixon, 1985) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Military Ground SnakeErythrolamprus miliaris (Linnaeus, 1758) | ColubridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mimic False Coral SnakeErythrolamprus mimus (Cope, 1868) | 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 |
|---|---|
| Dromicus ornatus Garman, 1887 Garman, 1887 | synonym |
| Dromicus giganteus Jan, 1863 Jan, 1863 | 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=Erythrolamprus&species=ornatus 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. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
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:3BDZ3. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.