Brazil's lance viper
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Brazils lance viper ( Bothrops brazili ) |
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| Bothrops brazili | ||||||||||||
| Hoge , 1954 |
Brazils Pitviper ( Bothrops brazili ) is a viper from the subfamily of the pit vipers and belongs to the genus of American Terciopelos ( Bothrops ).
features
Bothrops brazili rarely reaches a total length of more than 100 cm (max. 161 cm). The head is angular, elongated, triangular in shape when viewed from above and clearly set off from the neck. The eye has a pupil that is vertically slit when exposed to light. The body has a strong build and a brown to reddish-brown basic color. There are 17 to 18 black-brown angular spots along the sides of the body. These angular spots can merge over the middle of the back. The ventral side is relatively dark. The shields of the upper and lower lip and the muzzle are light-colored. Between the eye and the corner of the mouth a weakly pronounced temporal stripe can be seen. The venom apparatus consists of venom glands located on the side of the skull (specialized salivary glands ) and movable fangs located in the anterior upper jaw (solenoglyph tooth position).
Pholidosis
The pholidosis (scaling) shows the following characteristics:
- 7 upper lip shields ( supralabials ),
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Scuta ocularia
- 2 front eye shields (Scuta vorocularia),
- 2 posterior shields (Scuta postocularia),
- 7 to 8 scales between the upper eye shields (top of the head),
- 27 rows of keeled trunk scales ( Scuta dorsalia ),
- 180 (male) to 181 (female) abdominal shields ( Scuta ventralia ) and
- 50 (females) to 59 (males) under- tail shields ( Scuta subcaudalia ).
Systematics
The first description was made by the Brazilian herpetologist Alphonse Richard Hoge . He used the specific epithet to honor the physician Vital Brazil (founder of the Instituto Butantan ). No subspecies for Bothrops brazili are listed.
distribution
The distribution area includes areas within South America in Venezuela , Guyana , Suriname , French Guyana , Colombia , Brazil ( Pará , Amazonas , Rondonia , Mato Grosso ), Ecuador , Peru and Bolivia . The populated biotopes are represented by humid tropical and forested ecosystems. Bothrops brazili cannot adapt to new environmental conditions in the event of habitat loss due to deforestation. The species occurs regionally sympatric with Bothrops atrox (common lance viper), Bothrops bilineatus (green jararaca), Bothrops taeniatus and Bothrocophias hyoprora .
Way of life
Bothrops brazili leads a largely ground-dwelling and nocturnal way of life. Mostly individuals are found in the foliage of the forest floor. The prey spectrum primarily includes rodents . Young snakes feed mainly on small lizards . The propagation is done by ovoviviparity , so egg-viviparous.
Snake venom
The poison secretion from Bothrops brazili contains fibrinogenases . It may also contain cytotoxins , hemorrhagins ( blood vessel-damaging metalloproteases ) and myotoxins . There are hardly any clinical reports available. Local swelling , blistering , necrosis , coagulopathy and bleeding can not be ruled out as significant symptoms of poisoning after a poison bite by Bothrops brazili . Various antivenins , such as 'Polyvalent Antivenom' (Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Costa Rica) or 'Soro antibotropico-laquetico' (Instituto Butantan, Brazil), are available for therapy.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d University of Adelaide, Clinical Toxinology Resources: Bothrops brazili (accessed July 6, 2018)
- ↑ a b Bothrops brazili in The Reptile Database (accessed on July 6, 2018)
literature
- Ludwig Trutnau: Snakes in the Terrarium Vol. 2: Poisonous snakes . Verlag Ulmer, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-800-1705-23 .
