Alsophis rijgersmaei

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Subordo: Serpentes
Infraordo: Caenophidia
Superfamilia: Colubroidea

Familia: Dipsadidae
Subfamilia: Xenodontinae
Tribus: Alsophiini
Genus: Alsophis
Species: Alsophis rijgersmaei
Name

Alsophis rijersmai Cope, 1869

Type locality: St.-Martin and Anguilla.
Synonyms

Alsophis cinereus — Garman, 1887: 282
Alsophis cinereus — Barbour, 1923: 6
Alsophis rijersmai — Schwartz & Henderson, 1991: 575
Alsophis rijgersmaei — Breuil, 2002

References

IUCN: Alsophis rijersmai Cope, 1869 (Endangered)
Alsophis rijgersmaei at the New Reptile Database

Vernacular names
English: Anguilla Racer or Leeward Islands Racer

The Leeward Island racer (Alsophis rijgersmaei) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is found in Anguilla, Saint Barthélemy, and is probably extirpated from Sint Maarten.

Taxonomy

It was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1869, the specific name honouring the Dutch government physician in St. Maarten, Hendrik Elingsz van Rijgersma, who was an avid amateur naturalist.[3]
Conservation

It was thought to have been eradicated by the mongoose (Westerman, 1955; Sajdak and Henderson, 1991 in Powell et al., 1992). However, in 1992 there was a report of five specimens that were captured at Mary's Fancy, and in the same year one was observed in the field (Powell et al., 1992). A snake was also seen after the hurricane in January 1996 during a field trip at Flagstaf (Ecovision/AIDEnvironment, 1996). Snakes of the genus Alsophis and Liophis prove to be more sensitive to introduced predators than other genera (Henderson, 1992). A. rijgersmaei is not rare in mongoose-free Anguilla and St. Barths, and other species of the same genus are common in other mongoose-free islands of the Lesser Antilles (even extremely abundant in some areas of Saba, Dominica and St. Eustatius), even though dogs and cats have probably been living on these islands for hundreds of years.
References

Daltry, J.C. (2016). "Alsophis rijgersmaei". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T941A115053801. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T941A71739256.en.{{cite iucn}}: error: |doi= / |page= mismatch (help)
"Alsophis rijgersmaei ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Alsophis rijgersmai [sic]", p. 222).

Sources

Day M (1996). Alsophis rijgersmaei. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 28 July 2007.
St Barth Nature [1].