Proatheris superciliaris (PETERS, 1855)
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Proatheris superciliaris
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Lowland Swamp Viper, Domino-bellied viper, Lowland viper |
| Synonym | Vipera superciliaris PETERS 1855 Vipera superciliaris — PFEFER 1893: 89 Bitis superciliaris — KRAMER 1961 Vipera superciliaris — SWEENEY 1963 Atheris superciliaris — MARX & RABB 1965 Atheris superciliaris — STEVENS 1973 Atheris superciliaris — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 23 Atheris superciliaris — WELCH 1994: 21 Proatheris superciliaris — BROADLEY 1996 Proatheris superciliaris — JOGER & COURAGE 1999 Proatheris superciliaris — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 387 Proatheris superciliaris — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007 Proatheris superciliaris — WALLACH et al. 2014: 578 Proatheris superciliaris — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 596 |
| Distribution | Mozambique (from Beira north to Quissanga, up Zambezi River to Lake Malawi), Malawi, Tanzania Type locality: Mainland opposite Querimba Island, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. |
| Reproduction | ovoviviparous |
| Types | Holotype: ZMB 4121, according to Bauer et al. 1995: 81 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Dorsal head shields small and keeled except for a pair of large rugose supraocular shields (Figure 5a); nasals in broad contact with rostral (i.e. no suprarostral shields: Figure 1a); no duplication of transverse dorsal scale rows; palatine-pterygoid articulation an interlocking joint (Figure 4e); intrapulmonary bronchus long; subcaudals paired.” (Broadley 1996) 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 1609 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Venomous! Type species: Vipera superciliaris PETERS 1855 is the type species of the genus Proatheris BROADLEY 1996. Phylogenetics: for a recent phylogeny of this and related Viperinae see Šmíd & Tolley 2019. |
| Etymology | Apparently named after the scale above the eye, the superciliary, from Latin cilium = eyelash or eyelid. The genus was named after Pro- (Latin = before) and “atheris”, because this seems to be the plesiomorphic sister species to the rest of the Atherini. |
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