Lacépède's ground snake

Lacépède's ground snake, also known as the Martinique ground snake or Martinique racer, is a possibly extinct species of snake in the Colubridae family. It is endemic to Caribbean island of Martinique. Little is known of it scientifically, and few photographs exist.

Taxonomy

Lacépède's ground snake was first formally described as Coluber cursor in 1789 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain [de Lacépède|Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède] with its type locality given as Martinique. This species is now classified within the genus Erythrolamprus, which contains over 50 species. The genus Erythrolamprus belongs to the subfamily Dipsadinae, which is sometimes referred to as the family Dipsadidae. The relationships of Erythrolamprus species located in northern South America can be shown in the cladogram below, based on molecular DNA analysis:

Distribution

Lacépède's ground snake was endemic to Martinque in the Lesser Antilles, it was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered on the small satellite island of Rocher du Diamant in 1962 by James D. Lazell Jr.

Conservation status

Lacépède's ground snake was last recorded from Martinique's main island in 1965 and there have been no confirmed records of this snake from Rocher de Diamant since 1968. It has since been surveyed for on Rocher de Diamant but has not been refound, however the surveyors could not access all of the island and there have been reports of snakes on the island up to 2015. The surveyors concluded that the species was probably extinct.