Bitis harenna GOWER, WADE, SPAWLS, BÖHME, BUECHLEY, SYKES & COLSTON, 2016
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Bitis harenna
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Bale Mountains adder |
| Synonym | Bitis (Macrocerastes) harenna GOWER, WADE, SPAWLS, BÖHME, BUECHLEY, SYKES & COLSTON 2016 Bitis parviocula — BÖHME 1977 Bitis parviocula — LARGEN & RASMUSSEN 1993: 383–385 (in part) Bitis parviocula — SPAWLS & BRANCH 1995: 120–121 (in part) Bitis parviocula — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 615 (in part) Bitis parviocula — WALLACH et al. 2014: 92 (in part) Bitis parviocula — WITTENBERG et al. 2014 (in part) Bitis (Macrocerastes) harenna — BARLOW et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Ethiopia Type locality: Dodola (from maps: 6.98° N, 39.18° E, ca. 2,400 m elevation), Oromia Region, Ethiopia. |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: ZMUC R68255 (Figs. 1–6 in Gower et al. 2016); deposited by Sven Joergen Birket-Smith (1920–1983); preserved in ethanol; female. The exact date of collection is unknown, but was possibly 1966 or 1967, when Birket-Smith was in charge of the Addis Ababa Natural History Museum (M.J. Largen, pers. comm.). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A Bitis of the subgenus Macrocerastes (sensu Lenk et al. 1999) that differs from all other species except B. parviocula in lacking horns between the nostrils, in having less than four scales between the rostral and first supralabial, and in having a pale cross bar on the dorsal surface of the head behind the eyes (Figs. 1, 2). Differs from all other species of the subgenus Macrocerastes (including B. parviocula) in having a concavity on the lateral wall of the braincase for the origin of the M. retractor pterygoidei that is limited posteriorly by flange on the parietal, rather than extending onto the prootic (see Groombridge 1980; Fig. 3/4); in being mostly blackish dorsally with narrow pale (cream to yellowish) markings (Fig. 1); in lacking a regular, parallel-sided mid-dorsal stripe (and a series of dark, approximately semicircular markings immediately lateral to this stripe; Figs. 1, 2, 6); and in having a black middorsal marking on the head that extends anteriorly to between the nostrils (Figs. 1, 2). Among species of the subgenus Macrocerastes, the new species differs also from B. rhinoceros and B. gabonica in having a mostly dark rather than pale dorsal surface of the head. Unlike B. nasicornis, the new species lacks posteriorly notched scales. Unlike B. parviocula, the new species has facets on the frontals for articulation with the prefrontals that do not meet medially (Fig. 3), and it also lacks a subhorizontal ridge on the lateral surface of the prootic overhanging the foramen for the mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve (Fig. 4). See Remarks section for additional possible differences between the new species and its most similar congener, B. parviocula. |
| Comment | Similar species: B. parviocula |
| Etymology | Named after the Harenna forest and escarpment, in the Bale Mountains National Park, where a live specimen of the new species was recently sighted. For nomenclatural purposes the specific epithet is considered a noun in apposition. |
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