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Trimeresurus trigonocephalus



Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Subfamily: Crotalinae
Genus: Trimeresurus
Species: T. trigonocephalus
Binomial name
Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
(Donndorff, 1798)
Synonyms
  • Coluber capite-triangulatus - Lacépède, 1789
  • Col[uber]. Trigonocephalus - Donndorff, 1798
  • Vipera trigonocephala - Sonnini & Latreille, 1801
  • Trigonocephalus nigromarginatus - Kuhl, 1820
  • [Cophias] trigonocephalus - Merrem, 1820
  • Trigonoceph[alus]. sagittiformis - Schinz, 1822
  • Megaera trigonocephala - Wagler, 1830
  • Megaera olivacea - Gray, 1842
  • Bothrops nigromarginatus - A.M.C. Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854
  • Trimeresurus trigonocephalus - Günther, 1864
  • Lachesis trigonocephalus - Boulenger, 1896
  • Lachesis trigonocephala - Boettger, 1898
  • Trimeresurus capitetriangulatus - Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981
  • Coluber trogonocephalus - Golay et al., 1993[1]
Common names: Sri Lankan green pitviper.[2]

Trimeresurus trigonocephalus is a venomous pitviper species found in Sri Lanka. No subspecies are currently recognized.[3]

Contents

Description

A sexually dimporphic species, at a maximum of 70 cm in length the males are considerably smaller than females, which can grow to 130 cm. In addition, male tends to have a blue coloration, whereas the females are predominantly green. These are bulky snakes with a prehensile tail, suiting their arboreal lifestyle.

Geographic range

Found all over the island of Sri Lanka, from the lower altitudes to about 1,800 m (de Silva, 1980). The type locality given is "lîle S.-Eustache" (Sri Lanka).[1]

Behavior

This is not a particularly defensive species, but if agitated it will vibrate its tail tip and eventually strike.

Venom

The venom is primarily haemotoxic, with victims experiencing severe pain, swelling of the bitten area, oedema and localised tissue necrosis. However, fatalities have not been reported.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ Gumprecht A, Tillack F, Orlov NL, Captain A, Ryabov S. 2004. Asian Pitvipers. GeitjeBooks Berlin. 1st Edition. 368 pp. ISBN 3-937975-00-4.
  3. ^ Trimeresurus trigonocephalus (TSN 634936). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 December 2007.
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Trimeresurus_trigonocephalus". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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