You are here » home › advanced search › Metlapilcoatlus mexicanus

Metlapilcoatlus mexicanus (DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL, 1854)

iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Metlapilcoatlus mexicanus?

Add your own observation of
Metlapilcoatlus mexicanus »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Central American Jumping Pit Viper
S: Nauyaca Saltadora 
SynonymAtropos mexicanus DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 1521
Bothriechis nummifer var. notata FISCHER 1880: 222
Bothrops mexicanus — MÜLLER 1882: 154
Bothrops nummifer mexicanus MERTENS 1952: 79
Bothrops nummifer mexicanus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 52
Bothrops nummifera — VILLA et al. 1988
Atropoides nummifer — WERMAN 1992
Porthidium nummifer mexicanum — WELCH 1994: 101
Atropoides nummifer — CAMPBELL 1998
Atropoides mexicanus — PORRAS & SOLÓRZANO 2006
Atropoides mexicanus — GROEN 2008
Atropoides mexicanus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 85
Metlapilcoatlus mexicanus — CAMPBELL et al. 2019 
DistributionS Mexico (Chiapas), Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama

Type locality: Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 7612 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (2155 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Synonymy partly after SMITH & TAYLOR 1945. This species was previously included in A. nummifer, so that there may be still contradictory statements about the distribution of both species.

Type species: Atropos mexicanus DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 1521 is the type species of the genus Metlapilcoatlus CAMPBELL et al. 2019. The erection of this genus became necessary as the type species of Atropoides, A. picadoi, is only distantly related to the other members, and actually paraphyletic in some studies.

Distribution: Not in Querétaro fide Tepos-Ramírez et al. (2023). 
EtymologyNamed after its alleged occurrence in Mexico, which is correct for M. nummifer, to which this species was previously assigned.

The genus name Metlapilcoatlus is derived from the náhuatl metlapil, referring to the thick mortar used with a grinding stone called metate, and coatl, meaning "serpent." Throughout much of their range, species in this genus have various names referring to this instrument. 
References
  • Aguilar-López JL, Luría-Manzano R, Pineda E, Canseco-Márquez L 2021. Selva Zoque, Mexico: an important Mesoamerican tropical region for reptile species diversity and conservation. ZooKeys 1054: 127-153 - get paper here
  • Arias, Erick; Federico Bolaños 2014. A checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of San Isidro de Dota, Reserva Forestal Los Santos, Costa Rica. Check List 10 (4): 870-877 - get paper here
  • Bocourt,M.F. 1868. Descriptions de quelques crotaliens nouveaux appartenant au genre Bothrops, recueillis dans le Guatémala. Ann. Sci. Nat., Paris, Ser. 5, (Zool.) 10: 201-202 - get paper here
  • Bolaños, R. 1984. Serpientes, Venenos y Ofidismo en Costa Rica. Ed. Univ. Costa Rica, 136 pp.
  • Burger, W. Leslie 1950. A preliminary study of the subspecies of the jumping viper, Bothrops nummifer. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 9 (3): 59-67
  • Campbell, J.A. 1998. Amphibians and reptiles of northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and Belize. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, xiii + 380 pp. - get paper here
  • Campbell, J.A. & Lamar, W.W. 1989. The Venomous Reptiles of Latin America. Comstock Publishing/Cornell University Press, Ithaca
  • Campbell, Jonathan; Darrel R. Frost and Todd A. Castoe 2019. A NEW GENERIC NAME FOR JUMPING PITVIPERS (SERPENTES: VIPERIDAE). Rev. Latinoamer. Herp. 2 (2): 52-53 - get paper here
  • Castoe, Todd A., Paul T. Chippindale, Jonathan A. Campbell, Loren K. Ammerman and Christopher L. Parkinson 2003. Molecular systematics of the Middle American jumping vipers (genus Atropoides) and phylogeography of the Atropoides nummifer complex. Herpetologica 59 (3): 420-431 - get paper here
  • Duméril, A. M. C., Bibron, G. & DUMÉRIL, A. H. A., 1854. Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Deuxième partie, comprenant l'histoire des serpents venimeux. Paris, Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret: i-xii + 781-1536 - get paper here
  • Fischer, J. G. 1880. Neue Reptilien und Amphibien. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 46 (1): 215-227 - get paper here
  • Groen,J. 2008. Een blik p giftige slangen en de hobby eromheen. Lacerta 66 (1-3): 6-15 - get paper here
  • Guerra Centeno, Dennis; Héctor Fuentes Rousselin & David Morán Villatoro 2012. Serpientes de Guatemala: Guía para didentificación de especies. Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 186 pp.
  • Heimes, P. 2016. Snakes of Mexico. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 572 pp
  • Hoge, A.R. 1966. Preliminary account on Neotropical Crotalinae (Serpentes: Viperidae). Mem. Inst. Butantan 32 [1965]: 109-184 - get paper here
  • Jadin, Robert C.; Ronald L. Gutberlet Jr and Eric N. Smith 2010. Phylogeny, evolutionary morphology, and hemipenis descriptions of the Middle American jumping pitvipers (Serpentes: Crotalinae: Atropoides). J Zool Syst Evol Res 48(4): 360–365; doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2009.00559.x - get paper here
  • Jan, G. 1863. Elenco Sistematico degli Ofidi descriti e disegnati per l'Iconografia Generale. Milano, A. Lombardi. vii + 143 pp. - get paper here
  • Johnson, Jerry D.; Vicente Mata-Silva, Elí García Padilla, and Larry David Wilson 2015. The Herpetofauna of Chiapas, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (3): 272–329. - get paper here
  • Laking AE, Solís JM, Brown T, Maddock ST, Burdekin O, Taylor P, Lonsdale G, Green SEW, Martin TE, Galdamez JR, Kolby JE, Erens J, Jocque M 2024. The amphibians and reptiles of Cusuco National Park, Northwest Honduras: updates from a long-term conservation programme. In: Lipińska M, Lopez-Selva MM, Sierra JM (Eds) Biodiversity research in Central America. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 19(2): 37-62 - get paper here
  • Lillywhite, Harvey B. 2014. How Snakes Work: Structure, Function and Behavior of the World's Snakes. Oxford University Press, New York, 256 pp
  • López González, C.A.; Aceves Lara, D.R. & Jiménez Maldonado, R.E. 2006. ATROPOIDES NUMMIFER (RÜPPELL, 1845) (SERPENTES: VIPERIDAE), NUEVO REGISTRO PARA LA OFIDIOFAUNA DE QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO. Acta Zoológica Mexicana (n.s.) 22 (1): 133-134 - get paper here
  • McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
  • McCranie, James R. 2015. A checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with additions, comments on taxonomy, some recent taxonomic decisions, and areas of further studies needed. Zootaxa 3931 (3): 352–386 - get paper here
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Melgar-Martínez, A. I., Ruan-Soto, F., Chankin-Chankayun, E., García-Padilla, E., Villalobos-Juárez, I., Mata-Silva, V., López-Esquivel, E.A.,Fucsko, L.A.; Lavariega, M.C.; Johnson, J.D.; Lazcano D. & Wilson, L. D. 2023. The amphibians and reptiles of the Northern Selva Lacandona:: Nahá and Metzabok, Ocosingo, Chiapas, México; with some ethnoherpetological notes. Biología y Sociedad, 6(12), 48-78 - get paper here
  • Mertens, R. 1952. Die Amphibien und Reptilien von El Salvador. Abh. senckenb. naturf. Ges. (Frankfurt) (No. 487): 120 pp.
  • Müller, F. 1880. Erster Nachtrag zum Katalog der herpetologischen Sammlung des Basler Museums. Verh. Naturf. Ges. Basel 7: 120-165 - get paper here
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • Parkinson,C.L. 1999. Molecular systematics and biogeographical history of pitvipers as determined by mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences. Copeia 1999 (3): 576-586 - get paper here
  • Percino-Daniel, Ruth; Erika Cruz-Ocaña, Wilber Pozo-Ventura y Ernesto Velázquez-Velázquez 2013. Diversidad de reptiles en dos microcuencas del río Grijalva, Chiapas, México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 84: 938-948 - get paper here
  • Porras, L.W. & Solórzano, A. 2006. Costa Rica’s venomous snakes. Reptilia (GB) (48): 11-17 - get paper here
  • Porras, L.W. & Solórzano, A. 2006. Die Schlangen Costa Ricas. Reptilia (Münster) 11 (61): 20-27 - get paper here
  • Ray, Julie M. 2011. Geographic Distribution: Atropoides mexicanus (Mexican jumping pitviper). Herpetological Review 42 (3): 392 - get paper here
  • Rovito, Sean Michael; Thomas James Devitt, Susan Cameron Devitt 2015. First survey of the amphibians and reptiles of the Nectandra Cloud Forest Reserve, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Check List 11 (2): 1570 - get paper here
  • Rüppell, E. 1845. Verzeichnis der in dem Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft aufgestellten Sammlungen. Dritte Abteilung: Amphibien. Mus. Senckenbergianum 3 (3): 293- 316
  • Santos-Barrera, Georgina; Jesus Pacheco, Fernando Mendoza-Quijano, Federico Bolaños,<br>Gerardo Cháves , Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich & Gerardo Ceballos 2008. Diversity, natural history and conservation of amphibians and reptiles from the San Vito Region, southwestern Costa Rica. Rev. Biol. Trop. 56 (2): 755-778 - get paper here
  • Smith, E.N. & Ferrari-Castro, J.A. 2008. A new species of jumping pitviper of the genus Atropoides (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalinae) from the Sierra de Botaderos and the Sierra La Muralla, Honduras. Zootaxa 1948: 57–68 - get paper here
  • Solís, J. M., L. D. Wilson, and J. H. Townsend. 2014. An updated list of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with comments on their nomenclature. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 123–144 - get paper here
  • Solorzano, A. 2004. Serpientes de Costa Rica - Snakes of Costa Rica. Editorial INBio, Costa Rica, 792 pp.
  • Stuart, L. C. 1935. A contribution to a knowledge of the herpetology of a portion of the savanna region of Central Peten, Guatemala. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Miscellaneous Publications 29: 1-56 - get paper here
  • Stuart, L.C. 1963. A checklist of the herpetofauna of Guatemala. Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan (No. 122): 1-150 - get paper here
  • Sunyer, Javier 2014. An updated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Nicaragua. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1 (2): 186–202. - get paper here
  • Sunyer, Javier & José́ Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca 2023. An updated country checklist to the amphibians and reptiles of Nicaragua. REVISTA NICARAGÜENSE DE BIODIVERSIDAD (100): 1-25 - get paper here
  • Townsend, J. H., L. D. Wilson, M. Medina-Flores, E. Aguilar-Urbina, B. K. Atkinson et al. 2012. A premontane hotspot for herpetological endemism on the windward side of Refugio de Vida Silvestre Texíguat, Honduras. Salamandra 48 (2): 92-114 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Werman,S.D. 1992. Phylogenetic relationships of Central and South American pitvipers of the genus Bothrops (sensu lato): cladistic analyses of biochemical and anatomical characters. In: J.A. Campbell and E.D. Brodie (eds.): Biology of the Pitvipers. Selva, Tyler, Texas, pp. 21-40
  • Wirth, Michael 2011. Costa Rica – ein herpetologisches Paradies!. Draco 12 (45): 4-21 - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator