Gloydius brevicauda (STEJNEGER, 1907)
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Gloydius brevicauda
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | Gloydius brevicaudus brevicaudus (STEJNEGER 1907) Gloydius brevicaudus siniticus (GLOYD 1977) |
| Common Names | G: Kurzschwanz-Mamushi Chinese: 短尾蝮 |
| Synonym | Agkistrodon blomhoffii brevicaudus STEJNEGER 1907: 463 Ancistrodon halys brevicaudus NIKOLSKY 1916 Ancistrodon halys brevicaudus — RENDAHL 1933: 21 Ancistrodon halys brevicaudus — SHANNON 1956 Agkistrodon blomhoffii brevicaudus — GLOYD 1972 Agkistrodon blomhoffii dubitatus GLOYD 1977 Gloydius blomhoffii brevicaudus — HOGE & ROMANO-HOGE 1981: 195 Agkistrodon blomhoffii brevicaudus — WELCH 1994: 11 Agkistrodon blomhoffii brevicaudus — TRUTNAU 2002 Gloydius brevicaudus — ZHOU et al. 2001 Gloydius brevicaudus — WANG & ZHAO 2007 Gloydius brevicaudus — GAULKE 2008 Gloydius brevicaudus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 310 Gloydius brevicaudus — ORLOV et al. 2014 Gloydius brevicaudus brevicaudus — DAVID & VOGEL 2015 Gloydius brevicaudus siniticus (GLOYD 1977) Agkistrodon blomhoffii siniticus GLOYD 1977 Gloydius blomhoffii siniticus — HOGE & ROMANO-HOGE 1981 [1979] Gloydius blomhoffii siniticus — ORLOV & BARABANOV 1999 Gloydius blomhoffii siniticus — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004 Gloydius brevicaudus siniticus — WANG & ZHAO 2007 Gloydius blomhoffii siniticus — ORLOV et al. 2014 Gloydius brevicaudus siniticus — DAVID & VOGEL 2015 |
| Distribution | North Korea, South Korea, China (Liaoning, Jilin, Guangdong: HR 33: 226); Russia (Pozharsky District) [iNaturalist] Type locality: Fusan = (Pusan), S. Korea. dubitatus (invalid): China (Hebei); Type locality: Hsinglungshan (= Mt. Xing- long), Eastern Tombs, Hopei (= Hebei) Prov., China. siniticus: China (Yangtze River basin from E Sichuan to the delta; north to Anhwei, Kiangsu and Shantung; south into N Hunan and Kiangsi). Type locality: Ningkwo (= Ningguo Co.), Anhwei (= Anhui) Province, China. |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Holotype: USNM 17507 Holotype: AMNH 25554 [siniticus] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Body with a conspicuous pattern of subelliptical blotches (or half-bands) on a light brown or gray ground color; blotches brown, lighter at their center but with dark brown borders, opposite or alternating pairs meeting dorsally at midline or not in contact at all, 3-5 scales wide on sides and extending downward onto scale rows 3 or 2; number of half-bands 23-33 (28.9) in males, 25-36 (30.8) in females (Table 1). Belly black or nearly so, especially posteriorly, lighter laterally; crown and parietal region with conspicuous dark brown markings and a lyriform figure extending backward on neck; cheek stripe strong, dark reddish brown in life, sharply bordered above and below with white, the upper light line extending across top of eye; tongue black; tip of tail light — yellow in life. Internasals wider than long, the posterior margins curving obliquely backward from midline; loreals subquadrate, as high as wide; preoculars 2; postoculars 2 ( 60% ) or 3, the lowest extending forward beneath the eye; supralabials 7 (95%), rarely 8; infralabials 10 (75%), occasionally 9 or 11; posterior supralabials not conspicuously low and narrow. Scale rows 21 at midbody, all with keels posteriorly, lowest without keels anteriorly; paired apical pits present but inconspicuous. Ventrals 135-145 (138.9) in males, 140-149 (143.2) in females; subcaudals 35-44 (40.5) in males, 30-38 (34.9) in females (Table 2) (Gloyd 1972). |
| Comment | Venomous! Synonymy: G. blomhoffi dubitatus was listed as a synonym of G. blomhoffi by McDiarmid et al. 1999 but as a synonym of G. brevicaudus by Zhao and Adler (1993), David and Ineich (1999), and Orlov et al. 2014. Some of these authors also consider A. b. siniticus to be a junior synonym of Gloydius brevicaudus although it has been listed as valid more recenlty. Distribution: see map in ORLOV & BARABANOV 1999. G. b. brevicaudus and G. b. siniticus are allopatric with a large gap in between their ranges. Reports from Primorsky Krai are based on mis-identified G. ussuriensis (Nikita Pokhilyuk, pers. comm., 18 Dec 2020). |
| Etymology | Named after Latin “breve, brevis” = short and Latin “cauda” = tail. The species name needs to be brevicauda, irrespective of the gender of the genus as “cauda” is a feminine noun in apposition, according to ICZN Article 34.2.1 which states that the gender of a noun in apposition must not be changed to agree in gender with the generic name, The Latin noun for tail is cauda and of female gender. For further explanations and examples see Böhme & Denzer (2019). |
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