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Bothriechis



Bothriechis

Black-speckled palm-pitviper, B. nigroviridis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Subfamily: Crotalinae
Genus: Bothriechis
Peters, 1859
Synonyms
  • Bothriechis - Peters, 1859
  • Teleuraspis - Cope, 1860
  • Thamnocenchris - Salvin, 1860
  • Thanatos - Posada Arango, 1889
  • Thanatophis - Posada Arango, 1889[1]
Common names: palm vipers,[2] palm-pitvipers.[3]

Bothriechis is a genus of venomous pitvipers found predominantly in Mexico and Central America, although one species, B. schlegelii, ranges as far south as Colombia and Peru. All members are relatively slender and arboreal. The name Bothriechis is derived from the Greek words bothros and echis that mean "pit" and "viper" respectively.[3] Seven species are currently recognized and no subspecies.[4]

Contents

Description

Species that belong to this genus typically reach lengths of 60-80 cm, while B. aurifer, B. bicolor and B. lateralis are known to grow to 1 m or more.[3]

General characteristics include a sharply defined canthus rostralis, an unelevated snout, a rostral scale that is not as high as it is broad, and a prehensile tail that accounts for at least 15% of the body length.[3]

The color pattern usually consists of a green ground color that may or may not include pale or dark markings. B. schlegelii is an exception to this rule.[3]

Geographic range

Occurs in southern Mexico (southeastern Oaxacaand the northern highlands of Chiapas), through Central America to northern South America (Colombia, western Venezuela, Ecuador and northern Peru.[1]

Behavior

As a general rule, species found above 1,500 m altitude tend to be diurnal, while those found below 1,000 m tend to be active at night. Those found between 1,000 and 1,500 m may be active at any time of the day.[3]

Venom

Bothriechis venom is primarily a haemotoxin which causes severe pain, swelling, bleb formation, bruising, and quite often necrosis. If untreated it can lead to loss of a limb, or even death. Each year several farmers and plantation workers are bitten by eyelash vipers, sometimes resulting in fatalities. Wyeth in the United States and Instituto Clodomiro Picado in Costa Rica both manufacture different polyvalent antivenins which can be used to treat eyelash viper envenomations.

Species

Species[4] Authority[4] Common name[3] Geographic range[1]
B. aurifer (Salvin, 1860) Yellow-blotched palm-pitviper Mexico, in the mountains of eastern Chiapas, in northern Guatemala. Occurs in cloud forest at 1200-2300 m altitude.
B. bicolor (Boucourt, 1868) Guatemalan palm-pitviper The Pacific slope of southeastern Chiapas in Mexico, eastward to south-central Guatemala. Also known from several locations in Honduras, including the southern part of the Sierra de Merendón and Cerro Santa Bárbara. Occurs in cloud forests at 500-2000 m altitude.
B. lateralis Peters, 1862 Side-striped palm-pitviper The mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, including the Cordillera de Tilarán, the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera de Talamanca to the provinces of Chiriquí and Veraguas. Occurs at 850-980 m altitude.
B. marchi (Barbour & Loveridge, 1929) Honduran palm-pitviper The Atlantic versant of northwestern Honduras and eastern Guatemala. Occurs in mesic forest at elevations of 500-1500 m altitude.
B. nigroviridisT Peters, 1959 Black-speckled palm-pitviper The mountains of Costa Rica and Panama. Also found in the cloud forests of the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera de Talamanca at 1150-2400 m altitude.
B. rowleyi (Bogert, 1968) Mexican palm-pitviper Mexico in southeastern Oaxaca and northern Chiapas. Occurs in cloud forests at 1500-1830 m altitude.
B. schlegelii (Berthold, 1846) Eyelash palm-pitviper From southern Mexico (northern Chiapas), southeastward on the Atlantic slope and lowlands through Central America to northern South America in Colombia and Venezuela. Also found on the Pacific versant and lowlands in parts of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Occurs in mesic forest at elevations almost from sea level to 2640 m altitude.

T) Type species.[1]

Taxonomy

A new species from Guatemala and Honduras, B. thalassinus, was described by Campbell & Smith (2000). Campbell and Lamar (2004) recognize this species, as well as a ninth addition to the genus: B. supraciliaris, which was first described by Taylor (1954) as a subspecies of B. schlegelii, and is found in southwestern Costa Rica.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
  2. ^ Mehrtens JM. 1987. Living Snakes of the World in Color. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. ISBN 0-8069-6460-X.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. ISBN 0-8014-4141-2.
  4. ^ a b c Bothriechis (TSN 585650). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 2 November 2006.

Further reading

  • Campbell JA, Smith EN. 2000. A new species of arboreal pitviper form the Atlantic versant of northern Central America. Revista de Biologia Tropical, 48:1001-1013.
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bothriechis". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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