Trimeresurus rubeus (MALHOTRA, THORPE, MRINALINI & STUART, 2011)
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Trimeresurus rubeus
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Ruby-eyed Green Pitviper |
| Synonym | Cryptelytrops rubeus MALHOTRA, THORPE, MRINALINI & STUART 2011 Trimeresurus macrops — KRAMER (1977): 757 (part) Trimeresurus macrops — REGENASS and KRAMER (1981): 184 (part) Trimeresurus macrops — ORLOV et al. (2002a): 193 (part) Trimeresurus macrops — ORLOV et al. (2002b): 353 (part) Trimeresurus macrops — STUART et al. (2006a): 152 Trimeresurus cf. macrops GUMPRECHT et al. (2004): 236 Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) rubeus — DAVID et al. 2011 Craspedocephalus rubeus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 188 Trimeresurus rubeus MRINALINI et al. 2015 Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) rubeus— MIRZA et al. 2023 |
| Distribution | Cambodia (Mondolkiri), S Vietnam Type locality: on an herbaceous plant 1 m from the O Kamen Stream in hilly evergreen forest, Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area (formerly part of Samling Logging Con- cession), O’Rang District, Mondolkiri Province, Cambodia (12.326° N, 107. 092° E), 500 m elevation |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: FMNH 262718, adult female, collected at 1820 hrs, on 1 November 2003 by BLS, K. Sok, and T. Neang. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Cryptelytrops rubeus is distinguished from all other Asian pitviper species which have the typical "green pitviper" colouration (uniform green dorsal colour and a lateral stripe present on the first few dorsal scale rows in one or both sexes), except other species of Cryptelytrops, by the presence of a fused first supralabial and nasal scale. It can be distinguished from C. albolabris, C. insularis and C. septentrionalis primarily by the larger size of the eye (most obvious in adults), the wider supraoculars, and the shape of the head. The latter is more elongate–oval in C. albolabris, C. insularis and C. septentrionalis, but widens quite abruptly behind the eyes in C. car- damomensis, C. macrops s.s. and C. rubeus to give the latter a characteristically triangular shaped head. Cryptelytrops rubeus can be distinguished from C. cardamomensis sp.nov. (described above) using the combina- tion of the following characters (further details are given in Table 2). In males, C. rubeus tends to have fewer scales between the rear edges of the supraoculars (BTWSUPOC2), a relatively smaller eye (DEYE), and a less prominent postocular white stripe (SCROC). The scale reduction from 19 to 17 dorsal scale rows (DV19TO17) tends to involve lower scale rows, it tends to have less keeled body scales at mid-body (BSCK), and fewer scales between the last supralabial and the chin shields (VENTEDGE). In females, the scale reduction from 19 to 17 dorsal scale rows (DV19TO17) tends to involve higher scale rows in C. rubeus than in C. cardamomensis, it has a relatively shorter head (LHEAD), a small scale is never present between the nasal scale and the scale bordering the anterior edge of the pit (NASPIT), the lateral white stripe covers a larger proportion of the first dorsal scale row (SCR1), it tends to have fewer (larger) scales bordering the supralabial scales (BORSUPOC), and less keeled body scales at mid-body (BSCK). The scale reduction from 12 to 10 scale rows around the tail (SC12O10) also tends to occur closer to the vent in females of C. cardamomensis than C. rubeus and they also have relatively smaller eyes (DEYE). Compared to C. macrops s.s (Table 3), in both sexes C. rubeus has a more prominent lateral stripe with the white area covering a larger proportion of the first scale row (SCR1), less keeled body scales at mid-body (BSCK), and the scale reduction from 19 to 17 dorsal scale rows (VS19TO17) occurs further away from the head. In addi- tion, there are never any small scales present between the nasal scale and the scale bordering the anterior edge of the pit (NASPIT) in C. rubeus, while they sometimes occur in C. macrops s.s. In addition, males tend to have a less prominent postocular stripe (SCROC), fewer sublabial scales (SUBLAB), fewer scales between the rear edges of the supraocular scales (BTWSUPOC2), fewer scales between the last supralabial and the chin shields (VENT- EDGE), and less keeled temporal scales (KTEMP). In females, C. rubeus tends to have fewer ventral scales, fewer (larger) scales bordering the supraoculars (BORSUPOC), and a larger number of scales between the rear edges of the supraoculars (BTWSUPOC2) than C. macrops s.s. [from MALHOTRA et al. 2011]. |
| Comment | Venomous! Conservation: one of the 30 most endangered viper species (Maritz et al. 2016). Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | Rubeus, from Latin, meaning reddish, refers to the reddish eye colouration in both sexes, the presence of at least a partial red lateral stripe in males, and the bright and prominent red coloration on the tail, which differentiates it from other macrops group species. |
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