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Trimeresurus erythrurus (CANTOR, 1839)

IUCN Red List - Trimeresurus erythrurus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Redtail (bamboo) Pit Viper 
SynonymTrigonocephalus erythrurus CANTOR 1839: 31
Trimeresurus bicolor GRAY 1853 (fide SMITH 1943)
Trimeresurus porphyraceus BLYTH 1861 (fide RAY et al. 2026)
Trimeresurus erythrurus — GÜNTHER 1864: 386
Trimeresurus carinatus FAYRER 1874 (fide SMITH 1943)
Trimeresurus erythrurus — POPE & POPE 1933
Trimeresurus erythrurus — SMITH 1943: 522
Trimeresurus erythrurus — WELCH 1994: 115
Trimeresurus erythrurus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 331
Trimeresurus erythrurus — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004
Cryptelytrops erythrurus — MALHOTRA & THORPE 2004
Trimerusurus erythrurus — LALTANPUIA et al. 2008 (in error)
Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) erythrurus — DAVID et al. 2011
Trimeresurus erythrurus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 741
Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) erythrurus — MIRZA et al. 2023 
DistributionIndia (Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, West Bengal, Nagaland, Manipur), Bangladesh, Myanmar (= Burma), Nepal, Thailand ? (fide TAYLOR 1965), Bhutan

Type locality: Ganges Delta  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.19.99
Holotype: NHMUK 1946.1.19.53 [bicolor]
Lectotype: ZSI R-2950, designated by Ray et al. 2026 [porphyraceus] 
DiagnosisDIAGNOSIS (DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS). Scales in 23–25 longitudinal rows at midbody; first upper labial partially or completely fused to nasal; 9–13 upper labials, 1–2 rows of scales separate upper labials from subocular; 11–14 scales in a line between supraoculars; supraoculars rarely divided; temporal scales small, strongly keeled; ventrals: males 153–174, females: 151–180; subcaudals: males 62–79, females 49–61, usually paired, occasionally unpaired shields present among paired series; head uniform green, dorsum bright green, light ventrolateral stripe present in males, present or absent in females (Maslin [1942:23] says that the ventrolateral stripe is absent, but Smith [1943:524] states that it is present in males and variable in females), tail spotted with brown; hemipenes without spines. Total length males 575 mm, females 1045; tail length males 120 mm, females 165 mm. [after LEVITON 2003]


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CommentVenomous!

Synonymy: STEJNEGER (1907) synonymizes Trigonocephalus erythrurus CANTOR 1839 with Trimeresurus gramineus.

Distribution: Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). Some authors report this species from Thailand (like Pauwels et al. 2000), others exclude it from the Thai herpetofauna (e.g. Gumprecht 2001). See map in Vogel et al. 2023: 529 (Fig. 5) for localities. Not in Assam fide Basfore et al. 2024.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018).

Phylogenetics: T. erythrurus and T. purpureomaculatus are paraphyletic in the tree of Chen et al. 2020. 
EtymologyNamed after Greek erythros = red, reddish, presumably for the sometimes reddish looking skin between dorsal scales in some specimens. 
References
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