Wood lance vipers
| Wood lance vipers | ||||||||||||
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Bothriopsis taeniata smaragdinus |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bothriopsis | ||||||||||||
| Wagler , 1824 |
The bothriopsis ( Bothriopsis ) are a snake species from the subfamily of the pit vipers . The genus occurs with six species in northern South America, four of the six species are restricted to mountains there. All species are tied to the forest and live by trees. The species are poisonous. The bite commonly causes severe poisoning in humans, but deaths are very rare.
features
anatomy
Forest lance vipers are medium-sized to large, relatively slender pit vipers. The head is relatively narrow and not very clearly separated from the neck, the muzzle is slightly pointed. The Canthus rostralis is distinctive. The pupil is vertically elliptical. The tail is long in adaptation to the way of life in trees and pronounced as a prehensile tail. The smallest species usually reach overall lengths of 50 to 70 cm, the largest species ( B. taeniata ) usually stays below 100 cm, but can reach a maximum of 175 cm.
Scaling
The rostral is as tall or taller than it is wide. The animals usually show 5 to 9 large head shields. The number of supralabials is 6 to 9, the number of infralabials 8 to 12. The number of ventral scales ( ventral shields ) varies between 153 and 254, the number of mostly divided subcaudalia between 41 and 91 and the number of dorsal rows of scales in the middle of the body between 19 and 29.
coloring
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The animals are very well camouflaged due to their cryptic coloring on branches and in the foliage. The basic color of many species is very variable, but mostly at least partially green. Because of this, the animals often show light or dark drawings.
distribution and habitat
Wood lance vipers live in northern South America. Four of the six species occur in the Andes in Venezuela , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru and Bolivia and are there restricted to mountains. Two species ( B. bilineata and B. taeniata ) inhabit the lowlands of the upper Amazon and, spatially almost completely separated, the lowlands near the Atlantic in northeastern South America. B. taeniata is also found in the coastal forests in eastern Brazil .
All species are bound to the forest and live by trees; they inhabit moist, tropical forests from rainforests to mountain cloud forests .
Systematics
The number of species and subspecies has been controversial for a long time, Campbell & Lamar (2004) recognize six species:
- Bothriopsis bilineata ( Wied-Neuwied , 1821) - Bothrops bilineatus
- Bothriopsis chloromelas ( Boulenger , 1912) - Bothrops chloromelas
- Bothriopsis medusa ( Sternfeld , 1920) - Bothrops medusa
- Bothriopsis oligolepis ( Werner , 1901) - Bothrops oligolepis
- Bothriopsis pulchra ( Peters , 1863) - Bothrops pulchra
- Bothriopsis taeniata ( Wagler , 1824) - Bothrops taeniatus
A molecular genetic investigation of the genus including all six species is not yet available, so far a maximum of three species have been investigated. The results so far suggest a monophyly of the genus Bothriopsis , but the genus Bothrops is paraphyletic when the genus Bothriopsis is included . A final clarification of the systematic position of the genre to Bothrops is still pending .
Carrasco et al. (2012) synonymized Bothriopsis with Bothrops . The Reptile Database currently (2018) assigns all Bothriopsis species listed to the genus Bothrops .
Lifestyle, Diet and Reproduction
All species of the genus live on trees. As far as is known, the animals are mostly nocturnal and spend the day curled up and hidden in the foliage; For some hardly explored species of the Andes, however, daytime activity is assumed due to the low night temperatures there. These snakes mainly eat small vertebrates such as frogs, small lizards, birds and small mammals, and so far centipedes have also been identified as food. For several species, both juveniles and adult snakes have been shown to attract prey with the pink-colored tail end. All species are viviparous, when the young animals are born has so far hardly been studied. Between 5 and 17 young per litter have been proven so far.
Poison
All species are poisonous, the bite often leads to severe poisoning in humans. Typical symptoms after a bite are local swelling and bruising, severe bleeding disorders and spontaneous bleeding. However, deaths are very rare, at least with timely medical treatment.
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
