Popes pit viper
| Popes pit viper | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg)
Popes pit viper ( Trimeresurus popeiorum ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Trimeresurus popeiorum | ||||||||||||
| Smith , 1937 |
Popes bamboo viper ( Trimeresurus popeiorum , Syn. : Popeia popeiorum Malhotra & Thorpe, 2004 ), even popes Lanzenotter is a venomous snake species of the subfamily of pit vipers (Crotalinae). The species epithet popeiorum was given in honor of the American herpetologist Clifford H. Pope (1899–1974) and his wife Sarah H. Pope.
Distribution area
The distribution area of Pope's pit viper stretches from India via Bangladesh , Myanmar , Thailand , Laos , Cambodia to Vietnam and also includes the Malay Peninsula , Singapore, Borneo , Sumatra and the Mentawai Islands . It also occurs on the Andaman and Nicobar archipelagos in the Bay of Bengal , which belong to India .
features
Pope's pit viper can reach a total length of 80 cm. The strongly keeled scales on the back are arranged in 21, rarely 23 rows. The number of abdominal scales is 155 to 169, the number of subcaudalia , which is always divided, is 52 to 76. The anal scale is undivided. There are three pre- oculars in front of the eye, and two post-ocularia behind them. There are 11 to 13 supraocularia above the eye, including a narrow subocular. The number of upper lip shields (supralabials) is nine to eleven, the first being separated from the nasal shield by a small connective tissue zone, the second being adjacent to the pit organ but none of the upper lip shields touching the eye. The number of lower lip shields (infralabialia) is 12 to 14.
The snake is colored solid green on the back and on the flanks. The belly is also green but lighter or even whitish. At the transition from the abdomen to the sides of the body there is a narrow ventrolateral stripe that is orange or brown at the bottom and whitish at the top. The ventrolateral strip includes the outermost row of scales and part of the second row. The tail is about 17 cm long in adult specimens and is reddish brown. Young animals show the same colors as adult snakes.
From Stejneger's pit viper ( Trimeresurus stejnegeri ), Pope's pit viper can only be distinguished by the morphology of the hemipenis , from Trimeresurus yunnanensis by the higher number of rows of dorsal scales (21 vs. 19).
Way of life
Pope's pit viper is usually found in mountain forests only from an altitude of 800 meters. Most of the time the species lives near bodies of water. Pope's pit viper bites cause severe swelling and are very painful but rarely fatal. It is viviparous and a female gives birth to an average of ten young snakes, which are then 18 to 20 cm in length.
literature
- Ulrich Manthey, Wolfgang Grossmann: Amphibians & Reptiles of Southeast Asia. Natur und Tier Verlag (1997), ISBN 978-3931587123 , page 409.
Web links
- Trimeresurus popeiorum in The Reptile Database
- IUCN Red List: Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus (accessed November 1, 2016)