Mountain pit vipers
| Mountain pit vipers | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Godman's mountain pit viper ( Cerrophidion godmani ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cerrophidion | ||||||||||||
| Campbell & Lamar , 1992 |
The mountain pit vipers ( Cerrophidion ) are a genus of snakes from the subfamily of pit vipers . The genus occurs with five species in the mountains of Central America. Four of the five species have very small ranges in Mexico and Costa Rica and have hardly been explored. All species are poisonous; the toxic effects on humans are low to strong, but deaths have not yet been documented.
The name Cerrophidion is derived from the Spanish "cerro" for hill, mountain and the Greek "ophidion" for small snake.
features
anatomy
Mountain pit vipers are small to medium-sized, quite powerful snakes. The head is clearly set off from the neck, the muzzle is rounded and the eyes are large. The tail is not suitable for grasping. Three of the four species reach total lengths of a maximum of 51 cm, one species ( C. godmani ) reaches a maximum of 82 cm, but usually remains below 55 cm in length.
Scaling
The rostral is wider than it is tall. The top of the head shows a very variable scaling, whereby the scales in the front area are usually significantly enlarged. The number of supralabials is 7 to 11, the number of infralabials 8 to 12. The number of ventral scales ( ventral shields ) varies between 120 and 150, the number of undivided subcaudalia between 22 and 36 and the number of dorsal rows of scales in the middle of the body between 17 and 23.
coloring
The basic color of the upper side is brown, gray-brown or red-brown, rarely almost orange. On the back, the animals show two rows of large, more or less angular, dark spots, which are often connected to one another and thus form a zigzag band. On the flanks there are one or more rows of smaller spots below. All species show a narrower or wider dark postocular stripe that extends from the back of the eye to behind the corner of the snout.
distribution and habitat
Mountain pit vipers are restricted to Central America. Three of the five species have very small ranges in southeast Mexico , the range of C. godmani ranges from southeast Mexico to western Panama . C. sasai occurs in Costa Rica . All species inhabit montane regions, the populated habitats range from pine and oak forests to mountain cloud forests to alpine meadows.
Systematics
Campbell & Lamar recognize four species for which no subspecies are recognized. In 2012, Jadin et al. investigated the occurrence of Cerrophidion godmani on Costa Rica and separated Cerrophidion sasai as a new species.
- Cerrophidion barbouri ( Dunn, 1919)
- Cerrophidion godmani ( Günther, 1863)
- Cerrophidion sasai Jadin, Townsend, Castoe & Campbell, 2012
- Cerrophidion petlacalensis López-Luna, Vogt & Torre-Loranca, 1999
- Cerrophidion tzotzilorum ( Campbell, 1985)
The genus was described in 1992 on the basis of morphological characteristics, the species of the genus were until then assigned to the hook-nosed lance-vipers (genus Porthidium ). In previous molecular genetic studies, a maximum of three of the four species (excluding C. barbouri ) were included. The results suggest the monophyly of the genus Cerrophidion and a close relationship of this genus with the genus Porthidium .
Lifestyle, Diet and Reproduction
The species of the genus live on the ground and, as far as is known, almost exclusively diurnal. In contrast to many other pit otters, the animals are apparently active hunters in search of prey and not primarily hunters. The food spectrum of C. godmani has been well studied, it consists of small vertebrates, especially mammals, reptiles and amphibians, as well as arthropods . Almost 80% of the young animals eat arthropods, but the larger the snake, the smaller the proportion. In animals over 520 mm in total length, these only make up about 25% of the prey and the proportion of small mammals increases to about 50%. The few data on the other three species also show a diet consisting mainly of small mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
All species are viviparous; further data on reproduction are only available for two species ( C. barbouri and C. godmani ). Young animals are born in the rainy season, between 2 and 12 young per litter have been recorded for the two species.
Poison
All species are poisonous, but the animals are not aggressive and bites have been very rarely documented. The poison has a high proportion of tissue-destroying components. The toxicity in humans is usually low and limited to short-term pain and slight swelling, but in some cases severe pain, severe swelling of the whole limb that has been bitten, nausea and headache that lasted up to 15 days have been noted. However, deaths have not yet been documented.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Cerrophidion in The Reptile Database
- ↑ Todd A. Castoe, Mahmood M. Sasa, Christopher L. Parkinson: Modeling nucleotide evolution at the mesoscale: The phylogeny of the Neotropical pitvipers of the Porthidium group (Viperidae: Crotalinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 37, Issue 5, 2005: pp. 881-898
literature
- David A. Warrell: Snakebites in Central and South America: Epidemiology, Clinical Features, and Clinical Management . In: Jonathan A. Campbell, William W. Lamar: The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Comstock; Ithaca, London. 2004. ISBN 0-8014-4141-2 : pp. 709-761.
- Jonathan A. Campbell, William W. Lamar: The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Comstock; Ithaca, London; 2004 ISBN 0-8014-4141-2
