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Bitis arietans (MERREM, 1820)

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesBitis arietans arietans (MERREM 1820)
Bitis arietans somalica PARKER 1949 
Common NamesE: Puff Adder
G: Gemeine Puffotter 
SynonymBitis arietans arietans (MERREM 1820)
Vipera (Echidna) arietans MERREM 1820: 152
Cobra lachesis LAURENTI 1768
Cobra clotho LAURENTI 1768
Echidna arietans — WAGLER 1828
Vipera arietans — BIANCONI 1850: 189
Echidna arietans — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1425
Bitis arietans — FISCHER 1884: 17
Bitis arietans — SCHMIDT 1923: 140
Cobra lachesis — MERTENS 1938
Bitis arietans — FITZSIMONS & BRAIN 1958
Bitis lachesis — MENZIES 1966
Bitis arietans — HARDING & WELCH 1980
Bitis arietans arietans — AUERBACH 1987: 206
Bitis arietans arietans — GASPERETTI 1988: 330
Bitis arietans arietans — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 23
Bitis (Bitis) arietans — LENK et al. 1999
Bitis arietans — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 358
Bitis arietans — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 612
Bitis (Bitis) arietans — WITTENBERG et al. 2014
Bitis arietans — WALLACH et al. 2014: 91
Bitis arietans — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 576
Bitis (Bitis) arietans — BARLOW et al. 2019
Bitis arietans — PIETERSEN et al. 2021

Bitis arietans somalica PARKER 1949
Bitis lachesis somalica PARKER 1949: 101
Bitis lachesis somalica — CAPOCACCIA 1955: 70
Bitis lachesis somalica — GANS et al. 1965
Bitis arietans somalica — LANZA 1988
Bitis arietans somalica — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007 
DistributionRepublic of South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire; except in the Center), Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia,
Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Mali, Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS) [abukhalil.mohamed, pers. comm.], Chad,
Algeria, Morocco, SW Saudi Arabia, Oman

somalica: Somalia, N Kenya

Type locality: Cape of Good Hope = South Africa.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesTypes: BMNH 11.2.3a (possibly, fide P. Campbell, pers. comm. May 2019). Previously listed as unlocated; Merrem listed several plates in Seba (1735) in a footnote, but without details. Actual jar not located in BMNH though.
Syntypes: BMNH 1949.2.3.1-3, BMNH 1905.10.30.133-4, BMNH 1905.11.7.58, BMNH 1931.7.20.408-9 and BMNH 1931.10.2.2 [somalica] 
Diagnosis 
CommentVenomous!

Bitis arietans peghullae Stewart 1973 is rejected as it has not been published regularly (BRANCH 1999).

Hybridization: Bitis arietans and Bitis gabonica hybridize in nature (Broadley & Blaylock 2013: 103)

Type species: Vipera (Echidna) arietans MERREM 1820 is the type species of the genus Bitis GRAY 1842.

Phylogenetics: for a recent phylogeny of this and related Viperinae see Šmíd & Tolley 2019 and Ceriaco et al. 2020 (for the genus Bitis).

Diet: Bitis arietans feeds mainly on rodents (76 %), fide Mané & Trape 2019.

Distribution: not in Liberia fide TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014: 320. For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. Not in Equatorial Guinea fide SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022 (where only B. nasicornis and B. gabonica occur). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin arieto for “I butt like a ram”, arietans can also mean “I strike violently or to bite violently.

The genus is named after New Latin bitis = to bite.

 
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