Bothrops taeniatus WAGLER, 1824
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Bothrops taeniatus
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | Bothrops taeniatus taeniatus WAGLER 1824 Bothrops taeniatus lichenosus (ROZE 1958) |
| Common Names | E: Speckled Forest Pit Viper Portuguese: Comboia, Japoboia, Jararaca-Amarela, Jararaca-Cinza, Jararaca-Cinzenta, Jararaca-Estrela, Jararaca-Musgo, Jararaca-Tigrina, Jararaquinha |
| Synonym | Bothrops taeniatus WAGLER 1824: 55 Bothriopsis quadriscutatus PETERS 1861 Bothriopsis taeniata — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 1989: 178 Bothriechis taeniatus — SCHÄTTI & KRAMER 1991: 9 Bothriopsis taeniata — WELCH 1994: 31 Bothrops taeniatus — STARACE 1998: 384 Bothriopsis taeniata — PARKINSON 1999 Bothriopsis taeniata — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 251 Bothriopsis taeniata — HARVEY 2005: 9 Bothrops taeniatus — CLAESSEN 2006 Bothrops taeniatus — MONZEL & WÜSTER 2008 Bothriopsis taeniata — FENWICK et al. 2009 Bothrops taeniata — CARRASCO et al. 2012 Bothriopsis taeniata — COLE et al. 2013 Bothriopsis taeniata — WALLACH et al. 2014: 110 Bothrops taeniatus — NATERA-MUMAW et al. 2015 Bothrops taeniata — PONTES-NOGUEIRA et al. 2021 Bothrops taeniatus lichenosa ROZE 1958 Bothriopsis lichenosa ROZE 1958: 308 Bothrops castelnaudi lichenosus — ROZE 1958 Bothrops taeniatus lichenosus — KORNACKER 1999 Bothrops taeniatus taeniatus (DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854) Bothrops castelnaudi DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 1511 Lachesis castelnaudi — BOULENGER 1896 Bothrops lichenosa ROZE 1958 Bothrops castelnaudi — DUELLMAN 1978: 264 Bothrops castelnaudi — TRUTNAU 1987 Bothriopsis taeniata lichenosa — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 1989 Bothrops taeniatus taeniatus — KORNACKER 1999 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Amazonas, Rondonia, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Roraima, Maranhão, Pará, Acre etc.), Colombia, Ecuador [HR 34:263], Peru, Bolivia, French Guiana (as Bothrops castelnaudi fide GASC & RODRIGUES 1980), Guyana (CLAESSEN 2006) lichenosus: Venezuela; Type locality: Chimantá Tepui, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela. Type locality: “Habitat ad flumen Amazonum” [= Amazonas, Brazil] [taeniatus]. |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Neotype: MNHN-RA 1582, also holotype of Bothrops castelnaudi (Dumeril, Bibron & Dumeril,1854) designated by Hoogmoed & Gruber (1983). Original Holotype: ZSM, uncatalogued specimens (lost), Holotype: FMNH 74043 [lichenosus] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Bothriopsis taeniata is distinguished from all congeners and from species of Bothrocophias and Bothrops by the following combination of characters: (1) lacunolabial present; (2) dorsal keels nontuberculate; (3) infralabials and gulars mottled; (4) canthorostrals absent; (5) subcaudals mostly entire (several divided subcaudals present on distal one-third of tail in 70% of specimens we examined; few divided proximal subcaudals present in 20%); (6) ventrals 203–254 and subcaudals 66–91 (Campbell and Lamar 1989); (7) loreal subtriangular; (8) canthals moderate, separated by 2–4 scales in our sample; (9) internasals in contact or separated by a single scale; (10) postocular stripe black, about two temporals high, and often stippled and obscure; (11) dorsum banded and with a lichenose pattern of green, black, and yellow; prominent row of yellow paraventral spots present; venter heavily pigmented posteriorly (Harvey 2005: 9). |
| Comment | Venomous! Type species: Bothriopsis quadriscutatus PETERS 1861 is the type species of the genus Bothriopsis PETERS 1861. Note, however, that Bothriopsis has been synonymized with Bothrops by CARRASCO et al. 2012. Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | Named after Latin “taenia” (or Greek “tainia“, meaning “ribbon” and the Latin suffix -atus (meaning “provided with”), possibly a reference to the slender body of these vipers. The subspecies epithet, lichenosus, is a Latin adjective (masculine) derived from “lichen” (Latin name for composite organisms made up from symbiotic association of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner algae or cyanobacteria) + -osus (an adjectival suffix meaning “full of”), a clear reference to species general color patters which resemble rocks or trees covered with lichen, a perfect camouflage. |
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