March's palm lance viper

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March's palm lance viper
Systematics
Subordination : Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily : Adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea)
Family : Vipers (Viperidae)
Subfamily : Pit vipers (Crotalinae)
Genre : Palm lance vipers ( bothriechis )
Type : March's palm lance viper
Scientific name
Bothriechis marchi
( Boucourt , 1868)

March's palm lance viper ( Bothriechis marchi ) is a type of palm lance viper ( Bothriechis ) within the pit viper (Crotalinae). Their range is limited to the flatlands of Honduras and parts of Guatemala .

features

March's palm lance viper reaches a maximum body length of about 80 centimeters, with individual specimens also being up to one meter long. As an adult it has a green basic color, young snakes, on the other hand, are light brown or yellow-green in color. The belly side is yellowish green and the tail end is black. As a rule, the snake as a fully grown animal has no markings; young snakes have dark brown or bluish longitudinal spots on their backs. The head is undrawn and uniformly green on the upper side, with brown spots in young snakes; a temple band is also only available in young snakes. The iris is yellow or green-yellow, in young snakes bronze-colored.

distribution and habitat

The range of the snake is limited to the flatlands of Honduras and parts of Guatemala at altitudes of 500 to 1,500 m.

Systematics

March's lance viper is one of seven species of the palm lance viper ( Bothriechis ) and thus the American pit viper. Until a few years ago, the entire genus was assigned to the American lance otters ( Bothrops ). After the revision of the former large genus by Burger in 1971 and Steven D. Werman in 1992, it was assigned as a separate genus.

Within the palm lance viper it is the sister species of the taxon formed from the green and yellow palm lance viper ( B. lateralis ) and the two-colored palm lance viper ( B. bicolor ), with which it shares common features of body and head scaling as well as molecular biological features.

  NN  

 Ophryacus undulatus (as sister species)


  Palm lance vipers  

 Raptic lance viper ( B. schlegelii )


  NN  

 Black-spotted palm-lance viper ( B. nigroviridis )


  NN  
  NN  

 Rowley's palm lance viper ( B. rowleyi )


   

 Yellow-spotted palm lance viper ( B. aurifer )



  NN  
  NN  

 Green and yellow palm lance viper ( B. lateralis )


   

 Two-colored palm lance viper ( B. bicolor )



   

 March's palm lance viper ( B. marchi )







Snake venom

Pit viper poisons contain a mixture of enzymes , low molecular weight polypeptides , metal ions and other components whose function has not yet been fully understood. The effects of these poisons are correspondingly diverse. As with all species of the genus, the venom of March's palm lance viper has tissue-destroying and neurotoxic components.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steven D. Werman: Phylogenitic Relationships of Central and South American Pitvipers of the Genus Bothrops (sensu lato): Cladistic Analyzes of Biochemical and Anatomical Characters. In: Jonathan A. Campbell, Edmund D. Brodie Jr .: The Biology of the Pitvipers. Selva, Tyler (Texas) 1992; Pp. 21-40, ISBN 0-9630537-0-1

literature

  • Brian L. Crother, Jonathan A. Campbell, David M. Hillis: Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of the Palm-Pitvipers, Genus Bothriechis : Biochemical and Morphological Evidence. In: Jonathan A. Campbell, Edmund D. Brodie Jr. (Eds.): Biology of the Pitvipers. Selva, Tyler (Texas), 1992; Pp. 1-20, ISBN 0-9630537-0-1

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