Liophis cursor is a species 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. It is endemic to Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

. It has been reported on Diamond Rock

Diamond Rock

Diamond Rock is a 175 meter high basalt island located south of Fort-de-France, the main port of the Caribbean island of Martinique. The uninhabited island is about three kilometers from Pointe Diamant. The island gets its name from the reflections that its sides cast at certain hours of the day,...

, which may be the last refuge for the species. The French naturalist Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, Comte de Lacépède first described it in 1789 in his Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes Ovipares et de Serpens. The snake is diurnal and lives on the ground, usually hidden under leave

Leave

Leave may refer to:* Leave , a 2002 Mandopop album* "Leave ", a 2004 R&B song* "Leave" , a 2000 pop rock song...

s and wood. It hunts reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s and amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s. The importation to Martinique of snakes, and of mongoose

Mongoose

Mongoose are a family of 33 living species of small carnivorans from southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. Four additional species from Madagascar in the subfamily Galidiinae, which were previously classified in this family, are also referred to as "mongooses" or "mongoose-like"...

s to control it, have driven it to near extinction. Little is known of it scientifically and few photographs exist.

Source

• Breuil, M. 1996. Liophis cursor. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 28 July 2007.
• Lacepède, B. G. E. (1789) Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes Ovipares et de Serpens. Vol.2. (Paris: lmprimerie du Roi, Hôtel de Thou).