Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/crotalinae

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Bothriechis

Genus of snakes

Bothriechis
Summary

Genus of snakes

(Bothriechis nigroviridis) | Bothriechis | W. Peters, 1859 | Teleuraspis | Cope, 1860 | Thamnocenchris | Salvin, 1860 | Thanatos | Posada Arango, 1889 | Thanatophis | Posada Arango, 1889 }}

Bothriechis is a genus of pit vipers, commonly called palm vipers or palm-pit vipers found predominantly in Mexico and Central America. 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. Ten species and no subspecies are currently generally recognized.

Description

Species that belong to the genus Bothriechis typically reach a total length (tail included) of 60 –, while B. aurifer, B. bicolor and B. lateralis are known to grow to a total length of 1 m or more.

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.

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.

Geographic range

Bothriechis species occur in southern Mexico (southeastern Oaxaca and the northern highlands of Chiapas), through Central America to northern South America (Colombia, western Venezuela, Ecuador and northern Peru).

Behavior

As a general rule, species of Bothriechis 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 may be active at any time of the day.

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

There are 19 recognized species.

ImageSpeciesTaxon authorCommon nameGeographic range
[[File:Yellow-Blotched Palm-Pitviper.jpg190px]]B. aurifer(Salvin, 1860)yellow-blotched palm-pitviperMexico, in the mountains of eastern Chiapas, in northern Guatemala. Occurs in cloud forest at 1200–2300 m altitude.
[[File:Bothriechis bicolor.jpg190px]]B. bicolor(Boucourt, 1868)Guatemalan palm-pitviperThe 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 del Merendón and Cerro Santa Bárbara. Occurs in cloud forests at 500–2000 m altitude.
[[File:Adult male holotype of Bothriechis guifarroi - ZooKeys-298-077-g002-top.jpg190px]]B. guifarroiTownsend, Medina-Flores,
Wilson, Jadin & Austin, 2013Guifarro's palm-pitviperlast1=Townsendfirst1=Josiahauthor1-link=species:Josiah H. Townsendlast2=Medina-Floresfirst2=Melissaauthor2-link=species:Melissa Medina-Floreslast3=Wilson, Larryauthor3-link=Larry David Wilsonlast4=Jadinfirst4=Robertauthor4-link=species:Robert C. Jadinlast5=Austinfirst5=Jamesauthor5-link=species:James D. Austintitle=A relict lineage and new species of green palm-pitviper (Squamata, Viperidae, Bothriechis) from the Chortís Highlands of Mesoamericajournal=ZooKeysissue=298year=2013pages=77–105doi=10.3897/zookeys.298.4834pmid=23794885pmc=3689108doi-access=freebibcode=2013ZooK..298...77T }}
[[File:Bothriechis hussaini sp. nov. from Ecuador.jpgframeless230x230px]]B. hussainiArteaga et al. 2024Hussain's eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis khwargi.jpgframeless238x238px]]B. khwargiArteaga et al. 2024Khwarg’s eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis klebbai.jpgframeless267x267px]]B. klebbaiArteaga et al. 2024Klebba's eyelash pitviper
[[File:Groengele-groefkopadder-2.jpg190px]]B. lateralisW. Peters, 1862side-striped palm-pitviperThe 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 Province and Veraguas. Occurs at 850–980 m altitude.
[[File:March's Palm Pit Viper imported from iNaturalist photo 299189276 on 24 October 2023.jpg189x189px]]B. marchi(Barbour & Loveridge, 1929)Honduran palm-pitviperThe Atlantic versant of northwestern Honduras and eastern Guatemala. Occurs in mesic forest at elevations of 500–1500 m altitude.
[[File:Bothriechis nigroadspersus live specimens.jpgframeless266x266px]]B. nigroadspersusSteindachner, 1870Central American eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis nigroviridis (1).jpg190px]]B. nigroviridisTW. Peters, 1859black-speckled palm-pitviperThe 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.
[[File:Bothriechis nitidus from Ecuador.jpgframeless267x267px]]B. nitidusGünther, 1859Ecuadorian eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis nubestris by Ian Adams (iNaturalist) (cropped).jpeg218x218px]]B. nubestrisDoan, Mason, Castoe, Sasa & Parkinson, 2016Talamancan palm-pitviperCosta Rica. San Isidro de El General, Province of San José at approximately 3000 m altitude.
[[File:Bothriechis rahimi sp. nov. from Tundaloma Lodge, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador.jpgframeless204x204px]]B. rahimiArteaga et al. 2024Rahim's eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis rasikusumorum sp. nov. from Huila department, Colombia.jpgframeless189x189px]]B. rasikusumorumArteaga et al. 2024Shah's eyelash pitviper
[[File:Bothriechis rowleyi.jpg190px]]B. rowleyi(Bogert, 1968)Mexican palm-pitviperMexico in southeastern Oaxaca and northern Chiapas. Occurs in cloud forests at 1500–1830 m altitude.
[[File:Bothriechis schlegelii from Antioquia department, Colombia, in life.jpg268x268px]]B. schlegelii(Berthold, 1846)highland eyelash pitviper, Schlegel’s eyelash pitviperFrom 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.
[[File:Specimens of Bothriechis supraciliaris.jpg267x267px]]B. supraciliaris(Taylor, 1954)blotched eyelash pitviperOnly found in a mountainous area in southwestern Costa Rica. Occurs in lower montane wet forest and cloud forest at elevations from 800 m to 1,700 m.
[[File:Víbora de pestañas del Merendón, Merendon palm-pitviper (Bothriechis thalassinus), Serpentario en Zoológico El Picacho.jpg190px]]B. thalassinusCampbell & E.N. Smith, 2000Merendon palm-pitviperGuatemala, Honduras at 1370–1750 m altitude.
[[File:Specimens of Bothriechis torvus.jpgframeless267x267px]]B. torvusPosada-Arango, 1889Birri eyelash pitviper

T type species

Taxonomy

A new species of Bothriechis from Guatemala and Honduras, B. thalassinus, was described by Campbell & E.N. Smith (2000). Campbell & 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.

In 2024, a systematic revision of B. schlegelii through DNA-sequencing split it into an additional number of species: B. klebbai, B. rasikusumorum, B. khwargi, B. rahimi, and B. hussaini. At the same time names that were previously synonyms were revalidated: B. nigroadspersus (Steindachner, 1870), B. nitidus (Günther, 1859), and B. torvus (Posada Arango, 1889a). Due to the close relation between these species alongside B. supraciliaris, they are considered to be part of a B. schlegelii species complex, otherwise referred to as the "eyelash clade" within Bothriechis. These "eyelash vipers" form a monophyletic clade that is sister to the rest of the genus.

B. guifarroi was discovered in 2010 and described by Townsend et al. in 2013, in a study that included the following suggested phylogenetic tree of the genus:

Phylogeny (Arteaga et al. 2024)

References

References

  1. [[Roy Wallace McDiarmid. McDiarmid RW]], [[Jonathan A. Campbell. Campbell JA]], [[T'Shaka A. Touré. Touré TA]] (1999). ''Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1''. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. {{ISBN. 1-893777-00-6 (series). {{ISBN. 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
  2. [[John M. Mehrtens. Mehrtens JM]] (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. {{ISBN. 0-8069-6460-X.
  3. Campbell JA, [[species:William W. Lamar. Lamar WW]] (2004). ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates. 870 pp., 1,500 plates. {{ISBN. 0-8014-4141-2.
  4. Lewis, Robert Alan. (23 March 1998). "Lewis' Dictionary of Toxicology". CRC Press.
  5. "Taxonomic Information for ''Bothriechis guifarroi ''".
  6. (2013). "A relict lineage and new species of green palm-pitviper (Squamata, Viperidae, ''Bothriechis'') from the Chortís Highlands of Mesoamerica". ZooKeys.
  7. (1998). "Redescription and validation of ''Bothriechis supraciliaris''". [[Revista de Biología Tropical]].
  8. (2024-02-08). "Systematic revision of the Eyelash Palm-Pitviper ''Bothriechis schlegelii'' (Serpentes, Viperidae), with the description of five new species and revalidation of three". Evolutionary Systematics.
  9. {{NRDB genus
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

crotalinae bothriechis snake-genera taxa-named-by-wilhelm-peters
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Bothriechis — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report