113 p. Recurso Electr?nicoLas serpientes son parte fundamental de las cadenas tr?ficas, por lo que una disminuci?n de sus poblaciones conducir? irremediablemente a un desequilibrio del ecosistema. En el Tolima la gente mata indiscriminadamente las serpientes, ignorando que la mayor?a de las especies son inofensivas y s?lo del 10 al 15% son venenosas. En este trabajo se presenta la caracterizaci?n taxon?mica de las serpientes de la familia Colubridae que habitan en el departamento del Tolima. La escogencia de las Colubridae se debe a que constituyen la familia m?s abundante de serpientes. Esta investigaci?n se fundament? principalmente en la revisi?n de material de las principales colecciones biol?gicas del pa?s, en donde se tienen reportes de especies de serpientes para el Tolima. Para la identificaci?n de los ejemplares se utilizaron las claves dicot?micas de varias gu?as de campo. Se estableci? que el Tolima cuenta con 37 especies de col?bridos distribuidos en 24 g?neros. La mayor?a se encontraron al norte, centro y nororiente del departamento, mientras que en el sur se registr? el menor n?mero de especies. Las serpientes de esta familia mostraron una amplia distribuci?n altitudinal, desde los 270m hasta 2634m; sin embargo, a medida que aumenta la altitud disminuye la cantidad de especies. El trabajo realizado en las colecciones biol?gicas permiti? realizar una clave taxon?mica de las serpientes de la familia Colubridae del departamento del Tolima, que se va a dar a conocer a la comunidad local con fines biol?gicos y de educaci?n ambiental como aporte para la identificaci?n de estas especies.Snakes are a fundamental part of the food chain, thus a decrease in their population will inevitably lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem. In Tolima the people kill snakes indiscriminately ignoring that most of the species are harmless, and only 10 to 15% are venomous. In this study we made a taxonomic characterization of the Colubridae family present in the department of Tolima, since it is the most abundant family among snakes. This research is mainly based on a review of the material obtain from the principal biological collections of the country, where we can find snakes specimens from Tolima. Dichotomous keys of several field guides were used in order to identify the specimens. It was established that Tolima has 37 species of colubrids distributed within 24 genera. Most snakes were found at the north, central and northeastern region of the department, while in the south the lowest number of species was recorded, which is due to a great extend to the lack of record we have on this department area. The snakes of this family showed a wide elevation range from 270m to 2634m; however, it was found that as the elevation increases the number of species decreases. The work done in the biological collections facilitated the making of a taxonomic key for snakes of the Colubridae family in the department of Tolima, which would be publicly known to the local community for biological purposes and environmental education. Keywords: Altitude, Colubridae, Distribution, Taxonomy, Tolima.