Alsophis is a genus of snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 in the Colubridae family. They are among those snakes called "racers" and occur throughout the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. Alsophis snakes are the world’s rarest form of snake, and are currently critically endangered. Alsophis snakes are small rear fang

Fang

Fang is a mammal's canine tooth.Fang may also refer to:* A snake's poison-injecting tooth: see snake venom* Fang people, in Central Africa* Fang language, spoken by Fang people...

ed snakes, proving them harmless to man. This genus contains at least fourteen described species.

Alsophis Antiguae

The Alsophis Antiguae is a snake that belongs to the Alsophis family. This snake is probably the rarest snake in the Alsophis genus. This snake can only be found on Great Bird Island, off the coast of Antigua

Antigua

Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...

, and there are currently only eighty remaining.(Daltry 119).

Description

Alsophis snakes are all relatively small only growing to about a meter long, and experience sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...

, meaning that females grow much bigger than males (Savit 420). Alsophis snakes also are rear-fanged meaning they are non venomous (Antiguan 1).

Behavior

Alsophis snakes are harmless to humans and have gentle temperament (Daltry 121). They are diurnal, which means they are active from dawn to dusk except for a rest around mid-day(S Files 1) Some Alsophis snakes have a poor resistance to common diseases not found where the snake is actually from, this couldn’t be more true for the Alsophis Antiguae, which has ended some attempts at captive breeding (S-Files 1)

Selected species

• Alsophis anomalus
• Alsophis antiguae
  Alsophis antiguae
  The Antiguan Racer is a harmless rear-fanged grey-brown snake found only on Great Bird Island off the coast of Antigua, a small Caribbean island, thus colloquially named the "Antigua Racer Snake". It is thought to be the rarest snake in the world...
  
  – Antiguan Racer
• Alsophis antillensis – Antilles Racer
  Antilles Racer
  The Antilles Racer is a species of snake found in the Caribbean, on the Lesser Antilles islands of Montserrat, Dominica, and Guadeloupe. It is common only on Dominica, where it can be found in all areas except the highest elevations, possibly due to the absence of the mongoose on that island.It...
  
  
• Alsophis ater – Black Racer
• Alsophis biserialis
• Alsophis cantherigerus
• Alsophis elegans
• Alsophis melanichnus – Hispaniolan Racer (possibly extinct)
• Alsophis portoricensis – Puerto Rican Racer
• Alsophis rijgersmaei – Leeward Island Racer
  Leeward Island Racer
  The Leeward Island Racer is a species of snake in the Colubridae family.It is found in Anguilla, Saint Barthélemy, and probably extinct on sint Marteen.The Grass snake...
  
  
• Alsophis rufiventris – Red-bellied Racer
  Red-bellied Racer
  The Red-bellied Racer is a species of Colubrid snake that is endemic to the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, where it is found on the islands of Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts, and Nevis....
  
  
• †Alsophis sanctaecrucis – Saint Croix Racer
  Saint Croix Racer
  The Saint Croix Racer was a species of snake in the Colubridae family.It was endemic to the U.S. Virgin Islands.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1996. . Downloaded on 28 July 2007....
  
   (extinct)
• Alsophis sanctonum
• Alsophis vudii