Underwood's mussurana or Saint Lucia cribo (''Clelia errabunda'') is an
extinct species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Dipsadidae. The species was formerly
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to the
Caribbean island of
Saint Lucia. It was originally thought to belong to the species ''
Clelia clelia''. Like other species of
mussurana
Mussurana or musurana (Portuguese: ''muçurana'') is a common name which is used for several species of New World snakes, especially species in the genus ''Clelia''. ''Clelia'' is a genus of large snakes in the family Colubridae. The genus is e ...
, it is known to have
fed on other snakes; one museum specimen is preserved in the act of swallowing a ''
Bothrops
''Bothrops'' is a genus of highly venomous pit vipers endemic to Central and South America.McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. ''Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1''. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp ...
'' species. Its extinction is believed to have been caused by human activity.
It was mistakenly recorded as present on
Dominica due to a cataloging error.
Sources
*Malhotra, Anita; Thorpe, Roger S. (1999). ''Reptiles & Amphibians of the Eastern Caribbean''. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. 144 pp. . (''Clelia errabunda'', pp. 50, 96).
*
Powell, Robert; Henderson, Robert W. (2005). "Conservation Status of Lesser Antillean Reptiles". ''Iguana'' 12 (2): 63–77.
Further reading
*
Underwood G (1993). "A new snake from St. Lucia, West Indies". ''Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. (Zool.)'' 59 (1): 1–9. (''Clelia errabunda'', new species).
External links
''Clelia errabunda''at the
Encyclopedia of Life
The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of ...
.
''Clelia errabunda''at the Reptile Database.
Mussuranas
Clelia
Extinct reptiles
Extinct animals of the Caribbean
Snakes of the Caribbean
Reptiles described in 1993
{{Colubrids-stub