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Trimeresurus stejnegeri SCHMIDT, 1925

IUCN Red List - Trimeresurus stejnegeri - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesTrimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii ZHAO 1995
Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri SCHMIDT 1925 
Common NamesE: Chinese Green Tree Viper, Stejneger’s Bamboo pitviper; chenbihuii: Chen’s Bamboo pitviper
G: Stejnegers Bambusotter, Chinesische Bambusotter
Chinese: 福建竹叶青蛇 
SynonymTrimeresurus stejnegeri SCHMIDT 1925: 4
Trimeresurus gramineus — STEJNEGER 1907: 480
Trimeresurus graminaeus kodairai MAKI 1931
Trimeresurus graminaeus formosensis MAKI 1931 (non T. monticola formosensis MELL 1929)
Trimeresurus gramineus formosensis MAKI 1931
Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri — POPE 1935
Trimeresurus gramineus kodairai MAKI 1931
Trimeresurus stejnegeri makii KLEMMER 1963 Nom. nov.)
Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri — WELCH 1994: 117
Trimeresurus stejnegeri — COX et al. 1998: 21
Trimeresurus stejnegeri — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 344
Trimeresurus stejnegeri — TU et al. 2000
Viridovipera stejnegeri — MALHOTRA & THORPE 2004
Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004
Viridovipera stejnegeri — DAWSON et al. 2008
Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri — NGUYEN et al. 2009
Trimeresurus (Viridovipera) stejnegeri — DAVID et al. 2011
Viridovipera stejnegeri — WALLACH et al. 2014: 790
Viridovipera stejnegeri — GUO et al. 2018
Trimeresurus stejnegeri — RATHEE et al. 2022
Viridovipera stejnegeri — WANG et al. 2022
Trimeresurus (Viridovipera) stejnegeri — MIRZA et al. 2023

Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii ZHAO 1995
Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii ZHAO 1995
Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004
Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii — NGUYEN et al. 2009
Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii — DAVID & VOGEL 2015 
DistributionS China (from Yunnan north SE Gansu and east to Jiangsu; Jilin; Kwangsi, Kwangung, Hainan, Fukien, Chekiang), Taiwan (incl. Lanyu),
India (Darjeeling, Sikkim, Assam), Myanmar (= Burma) (?? - see comment), Vietnam, Laos

chenbihuii: Hainan. Type locality: Diaoluo Shan, Lingshui Co., Hainan Province, China (150 m).

Type locality: Shaowu, Fukien, China.  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: AMNH 21054
Holotype: CIB 64III5599 [chenbihuii]
Holotype: NSMT H02830 [formosensis]
Holotype: NSMT H02839 [kodairai] 
DiagnosisDIAGNOSIS (DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS). Scales in 21 longitudinal rows at midbody; 9–11 upper labials, first upper labials separated from nasals by a distinct suture; a single narrow supraocular, sometimes divided by transverse suture; 11–16 scales in a line between supraoculars; above bright to dark green, below pale green to whitish, the two separated by a bright bicolored orange or brown (below) and white (above) (males) or bicolored or white only (females) ventrolateral stripe, which occupies the whole of the outermost scale row and a portion of the second row; ventrals 150–174, subcaudals 54–77 (but see David et al. [2002:218 and 2001:215] for geographic distribution of these data), all paired; hemipenes short, spinose beyond bifurcation. Total length 750 mm, tail length 145 mm. [after LEVITON 2003] 
CommentVenomous!

Synonymy: Guo et al. 2016 called Trimeresurus stejnegeri chenbihuii “most probably an invalid taxon”, hence we synonymized it with steijnegeri.

Subspecies: Trimeresurus yunnanensis is considered a subspecies of Trimeresurus stejnegeri by many authors (like ZHAO & ADLER 1993). According to Vogel (pers. comm.) no subspecies of Trimeresurus stejnegeri are currently recognized. GOLAY et al. (1993) and MCDIARMID et al. (1999) recognize two subspecies, stejnegeri and yunnanensis (the latter is considered as a valid species here).

Distribution: Specimens from Thailand have been assigned to T. vogeli and T. gumprechti, hence T. stejnegeri does not occur in Thailand (GUMPRECHT & BULIAN 2003). All records of T. stejnegeri from MYANMAR have been referred to Trimeresurus yunnanensis (see LEVITON et al. 2003). GUMPRECHT et al. (2004) recognize only 2 subspecies, stejnegeri and chenbihuii. Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012).

Type species: Trimeresurus stejnegeri is the type species of the genus Viridovipera MALHOTRA & THORPE (2004). The genus is diagnosed by the possession of a Type 1 spinose hemipenis.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Leonhard Hess Stejneger (1851-1943), Norwegian-born herpetologist who moved to the US in 1881 and became curator of reptiles at the Smithsonian Institution in 1889.

T. s. chenbihuii has been named after Prof. Bi-Hui Chen of Anhui Normal University, but the validity of this subspecies has also been questioned (see ZIEGLER 2002 for a discussion). 
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