Bothrops oligolepis (WERNER, 1901)
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Bothrops oligolepis
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Inca Forest Pit Viper (oligolepis) E: Peru Forest Pit Viper (peruviana) |
| Synonym | Lachesis bilineatus var. oligolepis WERNER 1901: 13 Lachesis peruvianus BOULENGER 1903: 354 Lachesis peruvianus — WERNER 1927: 256 Bothrops peruviana — AMARAL 1929: 240 Bothrops peruvianus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 53 Bothrops oligolepis — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 53 Bothriechis oligolepis — SCHÄTTI, KRAMER & TOUZET 1990: 877 Bothriopsis oligolepis — WELCH 1994: 31 Bothriopsis peruviana — WELCH 1994: 31 Bothriopsis peruviana — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 249 Bothriopsis oligolepis — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 249 Bothrops oligolepis— WÜSTER et al. 2002 Bothriopsis oligolepis — FENWICK et al. 2009 Bothrops oligolepis — CARRASCO et al. 2012 Bothriopsis oligolepis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 110 |
| Distribution | Peru (eastern versant of the Andes, Cordillera Central), Bolivia (eastern versant of the Andes); Type locality: Bolivia peruviana: SE Peru (Cordillera de Carabaya, N Puno); Type locality: La Oroya and Carabaya, southeastern Peru |
| Reproduction | ovoviviparous |
| Types | Holotype: MTD (= MTKD) 1714 M. Dr.” (presumably Konigl. Zoologisches Museum Dresden), as cited in the original description. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Bothriopsis oligolepis 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 immaculate in adults; (4) canthorostrals absent; (5) subcaudals divided or with few entire subcaudals anteriorly; (6) ventrals 189–193 and subcaudals 54–65 (Campbell and Lamar, 1989, report 188–196 ventrals and 53–66 subcaudals for this species); (7) loreal subtriangular; (8) canthals narrow; (9) internasals in contact; (10) postocular stripe black and 2–3 temporals high; (11) dorsum bright green with black and yellow bands, each about one dorsal long; dorsal surface of head green with few black and yellow blotches (Harvey 2005: 6). Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1212 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Venomous! Bothrops albocarinatus is considered as a subspecies of Bothriechis (Bothrops) oligolepis by SCHÄTTI & KRAMER 1993. The same authors consider Bothriechis oligolepis as a senior synonym of Lachesis peruvianus Boulenger 1903, a notion that was confirmed by HARVEY et al. (2005). Synonymy partly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970. Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | Named after Greek oligos (ὀλίγος), little, small, insignificant + Greek lepis (λεπίς), scale. [“...Von dieser Art liegt mir ein Exemplar (D 1714 M. Dr.) aus Bolivien vor. das sich durch die auffallend niedrige Zahl der Schuppenreihen auszeichnet...“]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) |
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