South American Elegant Racer

Pseudalsophis elegans is a small-to-medium-sized snake. The maximum reported snout-vent length is 41.5 cm for males and 99.1 cm for females. The dorsal scales are smooth and in 19 rows near the head and at midbody, and 15 or 17 rows near the tail. There are 187−213 ventral scales and 87-119 subcaudal scales. On the head, there are usually 8 supralabials, 10 infralabials, 1 preocular and 2 postocular scales.

This snake is found in the southwestern part of mainland Ecuador, as well as in coastal Peru and northern Chile, west of the Andes Mountains.

There are no detailed studies of the diet of P. elegans. They have been reported to feed on lizards, including the cercosaurine gymnophthalmid Macropholidus ruthveni and the teiid Dicrodon guttulatum.

The specific epithet elegans (Latin for "elegant") refers to the dorsal pattern, a dark longitudinal stripe with undulating margins toward the head, changing to straight-edged and unbroken toward the tail.