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Bitis rhinoceros (SCHLEGEL, 1855)

IUCN Red List - Bitis rhinoceros - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymVipera rhinoceros SCHLEGEL 1855: 316
Echidna rhinoceros – DUMÉRIL 1856: 220
Clotho rhinoceros – COPE 1859
Bitis rhinoceros – PETERS 1882
Bitis (Macrocerastes) rhinoceros – LENK et al. 1999
Bitis rhinoceros — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007
Bitis gabonica rhinoceros — MEHRTENS 1987: 297
Bitis rhinoceros – BÖHME et al. 2011
Bitis (Macrocerastes) rhinoceros — WITTENBERG et al. 2014
Bitis rhinoceros — WALLACH et al. 2014: 94
Bitis (Macrocerastes) rhinoceros — BARLOW et al. 2019
Bitis rhinoceros — SENTER & CHIPPAUX 2022 
DistributionGuinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo

Type locality: "Goud-kust, fusschen hat Kaap de Drie Punten en hat fort Acre" [= Gold Coast between Cap Three Points and Accra, Ghana].  
Reproductionviviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesSyntypes: RMNH 1643-46 and RMNH 1647 (type status uncertain fide E. Dondorp, pers. comm., 28 Jan 2019). 
Diagnosis 
CommentVenomous!

Following Chippaux, B. gabonica has two dark triangles below eye and B. rhinoceros only one behind eye. 
References
  • Barlow A, Wüster W, Kelly CMR, Branch WR, Phelps T, Tolley KA. 2019. Ancient habitat shifts and organismal diversification are decoupled in the African viper genus Bitis (Serpentes: Viperidae). J Biogeogr. 46: 1234– 1248 - get paper here
  • Böhme, Wolfgang, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Christian Brede & Philipp Wagner 2011. The reptiles (Testudines, Squamata, Crocodylia) of the forested southeast of the Republic Guinea (Guinée forestière), with a country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 60 (1): 35-61 - get paper here
  • Chippaux, Jean-Philippe & Kate Jackson 2019. Snakes of Central and Western Africa. Johns Hopkins University Press, 448 pp. [detaileld review in HR 51 (1): 161] - get paper here
  • Chippaux,J.P. 2006. Les serpents d’Afrique occidentale et centrale. Paris (IRD editions), 311 pp.
  • Cope, E.D. 1860. Catalogue of the venomous serpents in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with notes on the families, genera and species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 1859: 332-347 - get paper here
  • Dobiey, M. & Vogel, G. 2007. Venomous Snakes of Africa - Giftschlangen Afrikas. Edition Chimaira, Terralog 15, 150 pp. - get paper here
  • Lenk,P.; Herrmann,H. W.; Joger,U. & Wink,M. 1999. Phylogeny and taxonomic subdivision of Bitis (Reptilia: Viperidae) based on molecular evidence. Kaupia (Darmstadt) (8): 31-38 - get paper here
  • Martínez del Mármol, G. 2020. The phenotypic variability of the Genus Bitis Gray 1842, with remarks in its resemblance to other vipers. In: Martínez, G., León, R., Jiménez-Robles, O., González De la Vega, J. P., Gabari, V., Rebollo, B., Sánchez-Tójar, A., Fernández-Cardenete, J. R., Gállego, J. (Eds.). Amphibians and Reptiles of Morocco and Western Sahara - get paper here
  • Peters, W.C.H. 1882. Monatsb. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 3: 146.
  • Phelps, T. 2010. Old World Vipers. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 558 pp. [critical review in Sauria 33 (3): 19 and HR 43: 503]
  • Schlegel, H. 1855. Over eenige nieuwe soorten van vergiftige slangen van de Goudkust. Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschapen Amsterdam, (Afdeeling Natuurkunde), 3: 312- 317
  • Segniagbeto GLazcano. H., Trape J. F., David P., Ohler A., Dubois A. & Glitho I. A. 2011. The snake fauna of Togo: systematics, distribution and biogeography, with remarks on selected taxonomic problems. Zoosystema 33 (3): 325-360. DOI: 10.5252/z2011n3a4 - get paper here
  • Senter, P. J., & Chippaux, J. P. 2022. Biogeography of snakes in Liberia: Review and synthesis of current knowledge. Ghana Journal of Science, 63(1), 29-62 - get paper here
  • Spinner, Marlene; Alexander Kovalev, Stanislav N. Gorb & Guido Westhoff 2013. Snake velvet black: Hierarchical micro- and nanostructure enhances dark colouration in Bitis rhinoceros. Scientific Reports 3 (1846), doi:10.1038/srep01846 - get paper here
  • TRAPE, JEAN-FRANÇOIS & CELLOU BALDÉ 2014. A checklist of the snake fauna of Guinea, with taxonomic changes in the genera Philothamnus and Dipsadoboa (Colubridae) and a comparison with the snake fauna of some other West African countries. Zootaxa 3900 (3): 301–338 - 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.
  • Wittenberg, Rod D. & Robert C. Jadin & Allyson M. Fenwick & Ronald L. Gutberlet Jr. 2014. Recovering the evolutionary history of Africa’s most diverse viper genus: morphological and molecular phylogeny of Bitis (Reptilia: Squamata: Viperidae). Org Divers Evol, DOI 10.1007/s13127-014-0185-3
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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