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Trimeresurus septentrionalis KRAMER, 1977

IUCN Red List - Trimeresurus septentrionalis - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Nepal pitviper, Himalayan White-lipped Pitviper
G: Nepal-Bambusotter 
SynonymTrimeresurus albolabris septentrionalis KRAMER 1977
Trimeresurus septentrionalis — GIANNASI et al. 2001
Trimeresurus albolabris septentrionalis — LEVITON et al. 2003
Cryptelytrops septentrionalis — MALHOTRA & THORPE 2004
Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) septentrionalis — DAVID et al. 2011
Trimeresurus septentrionalis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 743
Trimeresurus septentrionalis — VOGEL et al. 2022
Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) septentrionalis— MIRZA et al. 2023 
DistributionBangladesh; India; Nepal, Bhutan (fide Sunil Sapkota, pers. comm., 12 Feb 2019)

Type locality: Napal, 83° 55’, 28° 15’, 1500 m elevation (near Pokhara)  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: MHNG 1404.31 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Scales in 21 longitudinal rows at midbody; 10-11(12) upper labials, the first fused to the nasal; head scales small, subequal, feebly imbricate, smooth or weakly keeled; supraoculars narrow, undivided, 9-11 interocular scales between them; temporal scales smooth; green above, below, green, yellowish or white below, a faint ventrolateral stripe present in all males, absent in females; end of tail not mottled brown; ventrals: males 162-172, females 160-181; subcaudals: males 68-83, females 55-71, paired; hemipenes without spines. Total length males 610 mm, females 730 [partly based on G. Vogel, pers. comm.].


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CommentVenomous!

T. septentrionalis has been raised to full species status by GIANNASI et al. (2001) based on RFLPs. Note that sequence polymorphisms may not be reliable markers for species boundaries as they are only a very indirect measure of reproductive isolation.

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

Distribution: See map in Vogel et al. 2023: 529 (Fig. 5) for localities. 
EtymologyThe specific epithet is an adjective in the nominative case derived from the Latin for ‘northern’, referring to the distribution of this species. 
References
  • Bhattarai, Santosh; Chiranjibi P. Pokheral, Baburam Lamichhane,, and Naresh Subedi 2017. Herpetofauna of a Ramsar Site: Beeshazar and Associated Lakes, Chitwan National Park, Nepal. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 24 (1): 17-29 - get paper here
  • Chandramouli SR, Campbell PD, Vogel G. 2020. A new species of green pit viper of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 (Reptilia: Serpentes: Viperidae) from the Nicobar Archipelago, Indian Ocean. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 14(3) [Taxonomy Section]: 169–176 (e264) - get paper here
  • CHEN, ZENING; JIANPING YU, GERNOT VOGEL, SHENGCHAO SHI, ZHAOBIN SONG, YEZHONG TANG, JIA YANG, LI DING, CANGSONG CHEN 2020. A new pit viper of the genus Trimeresurus (Lacépède, 1804) (Squamata: Viperidae) from Southwest China. Zootaxa 4768 (1): 112–128 - get paper here
  • CHEN, Zening; Shengchao SHI, Jun GAO, Gernot VOGEL, Zhaobin SONG, Li DING, Rong DAI 2021. A New Species of Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 (Squamata: Viperidae) from Southwestern China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. Asian Herpetological Research 12 (2): 167－177 - get paper here
  • DAVID, PATRICK; GERNOT VOGEL & ALAIN DUBOIS 2011. On the need to follow rigorously the Rules of the Code for the subsequent designation of a nucleospecies (type species) for a nominal genus which lacked one: the case of the nominal genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 (Reptilia: Squamata: Viperidae). Zootaxa 2992: 1–51 - get paper here
  • Giannasi NICHOLAS, THORPE ROGER S. and MALHOTRA ANITA 2001. The use of amplified fragment length polymorphism in determining species trees at fine taxonomic levels: analysis of a medically important snake, Trimeresurus albolabris. Molecular Ecology 10: 419-426 - get paper here
  • Gray, J. E. 1842. Synopsis of the species of Rattle snakes, or Family of Crotalidae. Zoological Miscellany 2: 47- 51. - get paper here
  • Grismer, L. Lee; Tri, Ngo Van; Grismer, Jesse L. 2008. A new species of insular pitviper of the genus Cryptelytrops (Squamata: Viperidae) from southern Vietnam. Zootaxa 1715: 57-68 - 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
  • 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
  • Kramer, E. 1977. Zur Schlangenfauna Nepals. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 84 (3): 721-761. - get paper here
  • Leviton, Alan E.; Guinevere O.U. Wogan; Michelle S. Koo; George R. Zug; Rhonda S. Lucas and Jens V. Vindum 2003. The Dangerously Venomous Snakes of Myanmar Illustrated Checklist with Keys. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 54 (24): 407–462 - get paper here
  • Malhotra, Anita & Thorpe, Roger S. 2004. A phylogeny of four mitochondrial gene regions suggests a revised taxonomy for Asian pitvipers (Trimeresurus and Ovophis). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 32: 83 –100 [erratum p. 680] - 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.
  • Mehra, G.S., N. Mohanty & S.K. Dutta 2022. Occurrence patterns of herpetofauna in different habitat types of western Terai Arc Landscape, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(5): 21010–21018 - get paper here
  • Mirza ZA, Bhosale HS, Phansalkar PU, Sawant M, Gowande GG, Patel H 2020. A new species of green pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 (Reptilia, Serpentes, Viperidae) from western Arunachal Pradesh, India. Zoosystematics and Evolution 96(1): 123-138 - get paper here
  • Mirza ZA, H. T. Lalremsanga, Bhosale H, Gowande G, Patel H, Idiatullina SS, Poyarkov NA 2023. Systematics of Trimeresurus popeiorum Smith, 1937 with a revised molecular phylogeny of Asian pitvipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 sensu lato. Evolutionary Systematics 7(1): 91-104 - 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
  • Sharma, S.K., Pandey, D.P., Shah, K.B., Tillack, E, Chappuis, E, Thapa, C. L., AiroI, E. & Kuch, U. 2013. Venomous snakes of Nepal: a photographic guide. B.P. Kolrala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, 85 pp. - get paper here
  • Singh, Abhishek; Kanchan Puri, and Ritesh Joshi 2017. New distributional records for the Himalayan White-lipped Pitviper, Trimeresurus septentrionalis Kramer 1977 (Reptilia: Viperidae) from the Garhwal Himalaya in northwestern India. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 24 (3): 197–200 - 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.
  • Thakur, S., Giri, S., Lalremsenga, H. T., & Doley, R. 2024. Indian green pit vipers: A lesser-known snake group of north-east India. Toxicon, 107689 - get paper here
  • VOGEL, G., MALLIK, A. K., CHANDRAMOULI, S., SHARMA, V., & GANESH, S. 2022. A review of records of the Trimeresurus albolabris Gray, 1842 group from the Indian subcontinent: expanded description and range extension of Trimeresurus salazar, redescription of Trimeresurus septentrionalis and rediscovery of historical specimens of Trimeresurus davidi (Reptilia: Viperidae). Zootaxa 5175 (3): 343-366 - get paper here
  • VOGEL, GERNOT; TAN VAN NGUYEN, & PATRICK DAVID 2023. A new green pitviper of the Trimeresurus albolabris complex (Reptilia, Serpentes, Viperidae) from central and southern Myanmar. Zootaxa 5357 (4): 515–554 - 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.
  • Zhao,E. & Adler,K. 1993. Herpetology of China. SSAR, Oxford/Ohio, 1-522
 
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