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Protobothrops elegans (GRAY, 1849)

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Elegant pitviper 
SynonymCraspedocephalus elegans GRAY 1849: 7 (not Trimeresurus elegans GRAY 1853)
Trimeresurus luteus BOETTGER 1895: 269
Lachesis luteus — BOULENGER 1896: 553
Lachesis lutea — BOETTGER 1898: 139
Trimeresurus elegans — STEJNEGER 1907: 470
Lachesis mucrosquamatus WALL 1906 (not of CANTOR)
Trimeresurus elegans — MAKI 1931: 220
Trimeresurus elegans — HARDING & WELCH 1980
Protobothrops elegans — KRAUS et al. 1996
Trimeresurus elegans — WELCH 1994: 113
Protobothrops elegans — TU et al. 2000
Protobothrops elegans — GUMPRECHT et al. 2004
Protobothrops elegans — WALLACH et al. 2014: 572 
DistributionJapan (Ryukyu Island)

Type locality: given originally as “West coast of [North?] America”. Stejneger (1907) proposed a correction to Ishigaki shima, an island in the southern group of the Riu Kius.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.1.19.31 (formerly BMNH 1847.3.4.64) and BMNH 1946.1.20.2 (formerly BMNH 1847.3.4.62). 
Diagnosis 
CommentVenomous!

Synonymy mostly after STEJNEGER 1907.

Distribution: see map in Guo et a. 2016: 383 (Fig. 1).

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyThe name elegans (Latin) means tasteful, choice, fine, select or elegant and appears to refer to the color pattern or body shape. 
References
  • Boettger, O. 1895. Neue Frösche und Schlangen von den Liukiu-Inseln. Zool. Anz. 18: 266-270 - get paper here
  • Boettger, O. 1898. Katalog der Reptilien-Sammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt/M. 2.Teil (Schlangen). [type catalogue] Frankfurt/M (Gebr. Knauer), i-ix + 1-160. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum, Vol. 3. London (Taylor & Francis), xiv + 727 pp. - get paper here
  • Gray, J. E. 1849. Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Edward Newman, London, i-xv; 1-125. - get paper here
  • Gumprecht, A.; Tillack, F.; Orlov, N.L.; Captain, A. & Ryabow, S. 2004. Asian pitvipers. Geitje Books, Berlin, 368 pp.
  • Guo, P.; Jadin, R.C.; Malhotra, A. & Li, C. 2009. An investigation of the cranial evolution of Asian pitvipers (Serpentes: Crotalinae), with comments on the phylogenetic position of Peltopelor macrolepis. Acta Zoologica 91: 402-407 - get paper here
  • GUO, PENG; QIN LIU, TAO WEN, RONG XIAO, MING FANG, GUANGHUI ZHONG, NGUYEN Q. TRUONG, FEI ZHU, ROBERT C. JADIN, CAO LI 2016. Multilocus phylogeny of the Asian Lance-headed pitvipers (Squamata, Viperidae, Protobothrops). Zootaxa 4093 (3): 382–390 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Koba, Kazuo;Kikukawa, Daito 1976. The morphology of Trimeresurus elegans (Serpentes: Viperidae). Bulletin of Ginkyo College of Medical Technology 1: 19-32
  • Kraus, Fred; Mink, Daniel G. & Brown, Wesley M. 1996. Crotaline intergeneric relationships based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Copeia 1996 (4): 763-773 - get paper here
  • Maki, M. 1931. Monograph of the Snakes of Japan. Dai-ichi Shobo, Tokyo. (1), 7, 240 pages (expanded edition 1933)
  • Mori,M. 1982. Japans Schlangen, Vols. 1-3 (80, 102, 123 pp.). Tokyo (Igaku-Shoin Ltd.) [bilingual edition in German and Japanese]
  • Orlov, N.; Ananjeva, N.; Barabanov, A.; Ryabov, S. & Khalikov, R. 2002. Diversity of vipers (Azemiopinae, Crotalinae) in East, Southeast, and South Asia: annotated checklist and natural history data (Reptilia: Squamata: Serpentes: Viperidae). Faun. Abh. Mus. Tierk. Dresden 23: 177-218
  • Orlov, Nikolai L.; Sergei A. Ryabov, and Nguyen Thien Tao 2009. Two New Species of Genera Protobothrops Hoge et Romano-Hoge, 1983 and Viridovipera Malhotra et Thorpe, 2004 (Ophidia: Viperidae: Crotalinae) from Karst Region in Northeastern Vietnam. Part I. Description of a New Species of Protobothrops Genus. Russ. J. Herpetol. 16 (1): 69-82 - get paper here
  • PAN, Hujun; Basundhara CHETTRI, Daode YANG, Ke JIANG, Kai WANG, Liang ZHANG and Gernot VOGEL 2013. A New Species of the Genus Protobothrops (Squamata: Viperidae) from Southern Tibet, China and Sikkim, India. Asian Herpetological Research 4 (2): 109–115 - get paper here
  • Parkinson,C.L. 1999. Molecular systematics and biogeographical history of pitvipers as determined by mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences. Copeia 1999 (3): 576-586 - get paper here
  • Shibata, Hiroki; Takahito Chijiwa, Shosaku Hattori, Koki Terada, Motonori Ohno, Yasuyuki Fukumaki 2016. The taxonomic position and the unexpected divergence of the Habu viper, Protobothrops among Japanese subtropical islands,. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.04.027 - get paper here
  • Stejneger, LEONHARD H. 1907. Herpetology of Japan and adjacent territory. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 58: xx, 1-577 - get paper here
  • Tu, M.-C. et al. 2000. Phylogeny, Taxonomy, and Biogeography of the Oriental Pitvipers of the Genus Trimeresurus (Reptilia: Viperidae: Crotalinae): A Molecular Perspective. Zoological Science 17: 1147–1157 - get paper here
  • Wall, F. 1906. Notes on a collection of snakes from Japan and the Loo Choo Islands. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 2 [1905]: 511-517 - 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.
  • YANG, JIAN-HUAN; NIKOLAI L. ORLOV & YING-YONG WANG 2011. A new species of pitviper of the genus Protobothrops from China (Squamata: Viperidae). Zootaxa 2936: 59–68 - get paper here
 
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