Bothrocophias microphthalmus (COPE, 1875)
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Bothrocophias microphthalmus?
Bothrocophias microphthalmus
Find more photos by Google images search: 
| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | Portuguese: Jararaca, Jararaca-Bicuda, Jararaca-Nariguda |
| Synonym | Bothrops microphthalmus COPE 1876: 182 Bothrops microphthalmus — COPE 1879: 277 Lachesis microphthalmus BOULENGER 1896 Lachesis pleuroxanthus BOULENGER 1912: 423 Bothrops microphtalmus [sic] — PÉREZ-SANTOS & MORENO 1988 Porthidium microphthalmum — SCHÄTTI & KRAMER 1993 Bothrops microphthalmus — WELCH 1994: 33 Bothrops microphthalmus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 267 Bothrocophias microphthalmus — GUTBERLET & CAMPBELL 2001 Bothrops microphthalmus — LEHR et al. 2002 Bothrocophias microphthalmus — HARVEY 2005 Bothrocophias microphthalmus — CARRASCO et al. 2012 Bothrocophias microphthalmus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 113 Bothrocophias cf. microphthalmus — LLANQUI et al. 2019 Bothrocophias microphthalmus — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Ecuador, Peru, NW Bolivia, W Colombia, Brazil (Rondônia) Type locality: Between Balso Puerto and Moyabamba, Peru. |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Holotype: ANSP 11515 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Bothrocophias microphthalmus is distinguished from all congeners and from species of Bothrops and Bothriopsis by the following combination of characters: (1) lacunolabial absent; (2) dorsal keels tuberculate on posterior of body; (3) infralabials and some gulars brown with cream round or C-shaped marks; (4) canthorostrals usually present; (5) most subcaudals divided; (6) ventrals fewer than 160; (7) loreal elongate; (8) canthals moderate and separated by 3–5 scales; (9) 1–3 scales usually present between internasals; (10) postocular stripe distinct; (11) dorsum brown to charcoal, pattern of bands with distinctive row of black spots on dorsal row 4 of neck and cream stripe on anterior paraventrals (Harvey 2005: 11). |
| Comment | Venomous! Synonymy: Lachesis pleuroxanthus has been synonymized with Bothrocophias microphthalmus by most recent authors (e.g. Campbell & Lamar 2004, Wallach et al. 2014). However, the NCBI taxonomy still has an entry for Bothrops pleuroxanthus (taxID 157557), based on an unpublished study by W. Wüster (submitted in Aug 2000. Taxonomy: SCHÄTTI & KRAMER 1993 didn’t justify their allocation of microphthalmus to Porthidium, hence it has been assigned to Bothrops by some authors (W. Wüster, pers. comm.). Subspecies: Bothrops microphthalmus colombianus has been elevated to species status. Distribution: see map in Haprvey 2005: 12 (Fig. 7). See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. |
| Etymology | Named after the Greek micros (= small) and Greek ophthalmos = eye, face. |
| References |
|
| External links |
|