Gloydius caucasicus (NIKOLSKY, 1916)

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Higher Taxa	Viperidae, Crotalinae, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Caucasian pitviper G: Kaukasus-Otter
Synonym	Ancistrodon halys caucasicus NIKOLSKY 1916 Ancistrodon halys persicus RENDAHL 1933: 12 Ancistrodon halys caucasicus — RENDAHL 1933: 11 Agkistrodon halys caucasicus — HARDING & WELCH 1980 Agkistrodon intermedius caucasicus — GLOYD & CONANT 1982 Gloydius halys caucasicus — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004 Gloydius halys caucasicus — DAVID & VOGEL 2015 Gloydius halys caucasicus — WAGNER et al. 2016 Gloydius caucasicus — ASADI et al. 2019
Distribution	S Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, N Iran, NW Afghanistan. Type locality: Lenkoransky Uezd (now Lenkoran District, south-eastern Azerbaijan).
Reproduction	Viviparous.
Types	Neotype: ZISP 19017.1, adult male, Azerbaijan, Lenkoran District, vicinity of the Kirovsk town. Leg.: V. E. Dmitrijev, May 15, 1978; Lectotype (designated by VEDMEDERYA et al. 2009). MNKNU 14942
Diagnosis	Diagnosis (halys). Dorsal scales in 23 rows at midbody (very seldom 21 or 25); ventrals 141 – 187, sub- caudals 29 – 56; 7 – 9 supralabials. Total length up to 750 mm [ORLOV & BARABANOV 1999]. Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about between half a page and a page) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material.
Comment	Venomous! Synonymy: Listed as a synonym of Gloydius halys by Wallach et al. 2014: 310. Distribution: see maps in ORLOV & BARABANOV 1999, ASADI et al. 2019 (Fig. 4), Shi et al. 2021: 102 (Fig. 6).
Etymology	Named after its occurrence in the Caucasus region.
References	Asadi, Atefeh; Claudine Montgelard, Masoud Nazarizadeh, Akram Moghaddasi,<br />Faezeh Fatemizadeh, Evgeniy Simonov, Haji Gholi Kami & Mohammad Kaboli 2019. Evolutionary history and postglacial colonization of an Asian pit viper (Gloydius halys caucasicus) into transcaucasia revealed by phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses. Scientific Reports 9:1224 - get paper here David, P. & Vogel, G. 2015. An updated list of Asian pitvipers and a selection of recent publications, in: Visser: Asian Pitvipers. Breeding Experience & Wildlife. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, 571pp. ISBN 978-3-89973-450-8 - get paper here Gloyd, H. and Conant, R. 1982. nan Japanese J. Herpetol. 9: 75-78 - get paper here Gumprecht, A.; Tillack, F.; Orlov, N.L.; Captain, A. & Ryabow, S. 2004. Asian pitvipers. Geitje Books, Berlin, 368 pp. Harding, K.A., & Welch, K.R.G. 1980. Venomous snakes of the world; a checklist. Pergamon Press, Oxford 188 pp. Kamali, Kamran 2020. A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Iran. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (www.chimaira.de). 574 pp. Kidov A. A., Bunyatova S. N., Iskanderov T. M. 2020. Distribution and Conservation of the Nikolsky’s Pitviper, Gloydius caucasicus (Reptilia, Viperidae) in Azerbaijan. Current Studies in Herpetology 20 (3–4): 107 - get paper here Nikolsky, A. M. 1916. Faune de la Russie, Reptiles Vol. 2, Ophidia. Petrograd, 396 pp. [English translation by A. Mercado, Israel and Smithsonian Institution, 247 pp.] Rendahl, Hialmar 1933. Die Unterarten des Ancistrodon halys Pall. nebst elnigen Bemerkungen zur Herpetologie Zentralasiens. Arkiv för Zoologi 25 (8): 1-31 Tuniyev, B.S.; N.L. Orlov, N.B. Ananjeva and A.L. Aghasyan 2019. Snakes of the Caucasus: taxonomic diversity, distribution, conservation. St. Petersburg, Moscow. KMK Scientific Press. 2019. 276 pp. - get paper here
External links	National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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