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Bothriechis bicolor (BOCOURT, 1868)

IUCN Red List - Bothriechis bicolor - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Guatemala Palm Pit Viper
G: Zweifarbige Lanzenotter, Guatemala-Palmenlanzenotter
S: Nauyaca Verde 
SynonymBothrops bicolor BOCOURT 1868: 202
Bothrops (Bothriechis) Bernoulli MÜLLER 1878: 399
Trimeresurus bicolor — MOCQUARD 1909: 948
Trimeresurus bicolor — SMITH 1941: 61
Bothrops bicolor — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 44
? Bothriechis ornatus JULIÁ & VARELA 1978 (fide VILLA et al. 1988)
? Bothrops ornatus — VILLA et al. 1988
Bothrops bicolor — VILLA et al. 1988
Bothriechis bicolor — LINER 1994
Bothriechis bicolor — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 244
Bothriechis bicolor — WALLACH et al. 2014: 107 
DistributionMexico (SW Chiapas), Guatemala, along the Pacific versant of the southern Volcanic Cordillera

Type locality: Forests of St. Augustin, on western slope of Cordillera, Departamento de Sololá, Guatemala, 610 m elevation.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesSyntypes: MNHN-RA 1362 (MNHN-RA 1362 and MNHN-RA1362A-D) among which one was given to R. Hoge in 1956 and one given or destroyed in 1895 so three remained in MNHN-RA collections. They were renumbred as MNHN-RA 1362 and MNHN-RA 1991.3169-3170 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (1518 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Synonymy partly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970.

Distribution: reports from Honduras may represent B. marchi or B. thalassinus (pers. comm., Robert Meidinger, 24 Apr 2013) although some sources report it from Honduras (e.g. McDiarmid et al. 1999: 244). Not in Honduras fide McCranie 2015 (checklist Honduras). Clause et al. 2020 finally resolved this issue by showing that previous reports from Honduras are attributable to B. thalassinus.

Habitat: forests, fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018) 
EtymologyNamed after Latin bicolor, of two colors. [“...La coloration en dessus est d’un beau vert tendre; en dessous, jaune indien légèrement verdàtre...”]. 
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
  • 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
  • Campbell, J.A. & Lamar, W.W. 1989. The Venomous Reptiles of Latin America. Comstock Publishing/Cornell University Press, Ithaca
  • Clause AG, Luna-Reyes R, Jiménez Lang N, Nieto-Montes de Oca A, Martínez Hernández LA. 2020. Problems with imperfect locality data: distribution and conservation status of an enigmatic pitviper. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 14(2) [General Section]: 185–197 (e246) - 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.
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Heimes, P. 2016. Snakes of Mexico. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 572 pp
  • 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
  • Juliá Z, J., & VARELA, J. M. 1978. Una Bothrops de México, nueva para la ciencia. Mem. Primer Congr. Nac. Zool., 9-12 Oct 1977, Chapingo, Mex. Esc. Nac. Agric. (Univ. Auton. Ch.), Chapingo Mex.: 209-210.
  • Köhler, G. 2008. Reptiles of Central America. 2nd Ed. Herpeton-Verlag, 400 pp.
  • McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Meléndez, Lester 2008. Die Bothriechis-Arten Guatemalas – Daten zur Biologie und Nachzucht. Draco 8 (33): 44-49 - get paper here
  • Meneses-Millán, Marcos Serafín and Elí García-Padilla 2015. Bothriechis bicolor (Bocourt, 1868). Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (2): 207 - get paper here
  • Mertens, R. 1960. The World of Amphibians and Reptiles. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 207 pp.
  • Meyer, J. R., & WILSON, L. D. 1971. Taxonomic studies and notes on some Honduran amphibians and reptiles. Bull. So. Calif. Acad. Sci., 70: 106-114. - get paper here
  • Müller, F. 1878. Über einige seltene und neue Reptilien aus Guatemala. Verh. Naturf. Ges. Basel, 6: 390-411 - get paper here
  • Pachmann, A. 2012. IN 5 JAHREN UM DIE WELT: Mit den Besten unterwegs. Reptilia (Münster) 17 (97): 18-19 - get paper here
  • Peters, James A.; Donoso-Barros, Roberto & Orejas-Miranda, Braulio 1970. Catalogue of the Neotropical Squamata: Part I Snakes. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 297: 347 pp. - get paper here
  • Smith, H.M. 1941. Notes on Mexican snakes of the genus Trimeresurus. Zoologica 26: 61-64. - get paper here
  • Taggart, Travis W., Brian I. Crother, and Mary E. White 2001. Palm-pitviper (Bothriechis) phylogeny, mtDNA, and consilience. Cladistics 17: 355-370 - get paper here
  • Villa, J., Wilson, L.D., Johnson, J.D. 1988. Middle American Herpetology - A Bibliographic Checklist. University of Missouri Press, 132 pp [review in Copeia 1989 (3): 802]
  • 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.
 
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