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Gloydius himalayanus (GÜNTHER, 1864)

IUCN Red List - Gloydius himalayanus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Himalayan Pitviper
Local name: Pohur (Kashmir) 
SynonymHalys himalayanus GÜNTHER 1864: 303
Ancistrodon himalayanus BOULENGER 1896
Ancistrodon himalayanus — FENTON 1909
Ancistrodon himalayanus — SMITH 1943: 495
Agkistrodon himalayanus — WELCH 1994: 11
Gloydius himalayanus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 305
Gloydius himalayanus — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004
Agkistrodon himalayanus — SHARMA 2004
Agkistrodon himalayanus — MURTHY 2010
Gloydius himalayanus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 310 
DistributionPakistan (Chitral, Murree (= Marri)),
India (Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal), Bhutan,
W/C Nepal (Gloyd and Conant, 1990; Map 12), elevation up to 4880 m (Shi et al. 2017)

Type locality: Garhval, Himalaya, elevation 9000 ft. [= Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh = Uttaranchal, India, 2743 m.  
Reproductionovoviviparous; mating behavior: Dolia & Das 2023. 
TypesTypes: BMNH 1946.1.18.75 (formerly BMNH 1860.3.19.1189) and BMNH 1946.1.19.64 (formerly BMNH 1860.3.19.1358) (two syntypes), "Garhval" (= Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh, India). 
DiagnosisUnfortunately 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 1371 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous! Fenton 1909 reported several cases of bites by this species.

Synonymy: Gloyd and Conant (1990) suggested the retention of himalayanus in Agkistrodon, rather than treat it as a member of the genus Gloydius.

The original description is available online (see link below).

Distribution: Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. For a map of localities see Shi et al. 2021: 102 (Fig. 6) 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality. 
References
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum, Vol. 3. London (Taylor & Francis), xiv + 727 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, George A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp. - get paper here
  • Chaudhuri, A; Mukherjee, S; Chowdhury, S & Purkayastha, J 2018. Geographic Distribution: Gloydius himalayanus (Himalayan Pitviper). Herpetological Review 49 (3): 505 - get paper here
  • Dolia, J., & Das, A. 2023. First record of mating and dichromatism in the Himalayan Pit Viper (Gloydius himalayanus Günther 1864). Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(1), e18095-e18095 - get paper here
  • Fenton, L.L. 1909. The Snakes of Kashmir. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 19: 1002 - get paper here
  • Gloyd, H. K. & R. CONANT 1990. Snakes of the Agkistrodon complex. A monographic review. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Contributions to Herpetology No. 6. SSAR, Oxford, Ohio. vi + 614 pp; 52 pl.
  • Gumprecht, A.; Tillack, F.; Orlov, N.L.; Captain, A. & Ryabow, S. 2004. Asian pitvipers. Geitje Books, Berlin, 368 pp.
  • Günther, A. 1864. The Reptiles of British India. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp. - get paper here
  • Jamal, Qaisar; Muhammad Idrees, Saif Ullah, Muhammad Adnan, Farrah Zaidi, Qaiser Zaman, and Syed Basit Rasheed 2018. Diversity and Altitudinal Distribution of Squamata in Two Distinct Ecological Zones of Dir, A Himalayan Sub-Zone of Northern Pakistan. Pakistan J. Zool., vol. 50(5), pp 1835-1839 - get paper here
  • Kästle , W., Rai, K. & Schleich, H.H. 2013. FIELD GUIDE to Amphibians and Reptiles of Nepal. ARCO-Nepal e.V., 625 pp. - get paper here
  • Khan, M.S. 1983. Venomous terrestrial snakes of Pakistan. The Snake 15 (2): 101-105.
  • Lenz, Norbert 2012. Von Schmetterlingen und Donnerdrachen - Natur und Kultur in Bhutan. Karlsruher Naturhefte 4, Naturkundemuseum Karlsruhe, 124 pp.
  • Manhas, Amit 2020. Observations of Himalayan Pitvipers, Gloydius himalayanus (Günther 1864), in the Doda District, Jammu and Kashmir, India. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 27 (3): 476-478 - get paper here
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Murthy, T.S.N. 2010. The reptile fauna of India. B.R. Publishing, New Delhi, 332 pp.
  • Nanhoe, L.M.R., & Ouboter, P.E. 1987. The distribution of reptiles and amphibians in the Annapurna-Dhaulagiri region (Nepal). Zoologische Verhandelingen (240): 1-105 - get paper here
  • Sahi D.N., Koul S. 2020. Annotated List of Amphibians and Reptiles of Jammu and Kashmir State. In: Dar G. & Khuroo A. (eds) Biodiversity of the Himalaya: Jammu and Kashmir State. Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation, vol 18. Springer, Singapore - get paper here
  • Saikia, U.; Sharma, D.K. & Sharma, R.M. 2007. Checklist of the Reptilian fauna of Himachal Pradesh, India. Reptile Rap (8): 6-9 - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • Shi J-S, Liu J-C, Giri R, Owens JB, Santra V, Kuttalam S, Selvan M, Guo K-J, Malhotra A 2021. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus Gloydius (Squamata, Viperidae, Crotalinae), with description of two new alpine species from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. ZooKeys 1061: 87-108 - get paper here
  • Shi, Jingsong; Gang Wang; Xi’er Chen; Yihao Fang; Li Ding; Song Huang; Mian Hou, Jun Liu, and Pipeng Li 2017. A new moth-preying alpine pit viper species from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (Viperidae, Crotalinae). Amphibia-Reptilia, 38 (4): 517 – 532;<br />DOI: 10.1163/15685381-00003134 - get paper here
  • Sindaco, R.; Alberto Venchi & Cristina Grieco 2013. The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic, Volume 2: Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Snakes of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, with an Update to Volume 1. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina (Italy), 543 pp. - get paper here
  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
  • Swan, L.W., & Leviton, A.E. 1962. The herpetology of Nepal: a history, check list, and zoogeographical analysis of the herpetofauna. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 32 (6) (4.s.): 103-147. - get paper here
  • Wall, F. 1906. The poisonous snakes of India and how to recognize them, Part II. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 17: 299-334 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Wangyal, Jigme Tshelthrim 2019. The status of herpetofauna of Bhutan. District Forest Office, District Administration, Trashigang, Bhutan, 20-39 - get paper here
  • Whitaker, Romulus and Ashok Captain 2004. Snakes of India. Draco Books, 500 pp., reprinted 2007 - get paper here
 
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