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Trimeresurus popeiorum SMITH, 1937

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Pope’s Tree Viper, Pope's Bamboo Pit Viper, Pope’s Green Pit Viper
G: Popes Bambusotter, Popes Lanzenotter
Chinese: 坡普竹叶青蛇
E: Yingjiang green pitviper [yingjiangensis]
Chinese: Yíng jiāng zhú yè qīng (盈江竹叶青) [yingjiangensis] 
SynonymTrimeresurus popeiorum SMITH 1937
Trimeresurus popeorum — GRANDISON 1972: 94
Trimeresurus popeiorum — COX et al. 1998: 21
Trimeresurus popeorum — HOFFMANN 1998
Trimeresurus popeorum — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 340
Trimeresurus popeiorum — TU et al. 2000
Trimeresurus popeiorum — VOGEL et al. 2004
Popeia popeiorum — MALHOTRA & THORPE 2004
Popeia popeiorum — GRISMER et al. 2006
Trimeresurus popeiorum — DAVID et al. 2009
Trimeresurus (Popeia) popeiorum — DAVID et al. 2011
Popeia popeorum — WALLACH et al. 2014: 575
Popeia popeiorum — GUO et al. 2015
Popeia popeiorum — CHAN-ARD et al. 2015: 291
Trimeresurus popeiorum — MULCAHY et al. 2017
Popeia popeiorum — GUO et al. 2018
Trimeresurus yingjiangensis CHEN, ZHANG, SHI, TANG, GUO, SONG & DING 2019
Popeia yingjiangensis — WANG 2022
Trimeresurus popeiorum — MIRZA et al. 2023 
DistributionNE India (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram etc.), Nepal, Myanmar (= Burma), N Thailand, N Laos (Oudômxay, Xaignabouli, Louangphrabang, Phôngsali, Vientiane), Malaysia (Pulau Tioman? [LIM & LIM 1999]); China (Yunnan)

Type locality: Khasi Hills, (State of Meghalaya), India (Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, designated by TAYLOR & ELBEL 1958)

yingjiangensis: China (Yunnan), Myanmar (Htamanthi wildlife sanctuary, Sagaing Division); Type locality: Heihe Village, Kachang Town, Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province (24.782° N, 97.878° E, 1112 m elevation)  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 72.4.17.137 (Lectotype)
Holotype: CIB DL2017070101, adult male, collected by Li DING on 19 July 2017 (Figure 1). Paratypes: ZL-tspynglg-2018- 01(allotype, GIABR) adult female, collected from Heping Village, Tongbiguan Town, Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province (24.584° N, 97.738° E, 1 200 m) by Jian XU. DL201070102 (CIB), adult male, and DL201070103 (CIB), adult male, collected by Li DING at the same time as Holotype. OV2671 (IVPP), collected from the Yingjiang County (24.734° N, 97.843° E, 1074 m) by Jingsong SHI on 6 September 2017. [yingjiangensis] 
DiagnosisDIAGNOSIS (DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS): Scales in 21 (rarely 23) longitudinal rows at midbody; 9–11 upper labials, first upper labials separated from nasals by a distinct suture; a single supraocular; above green, below pale green to whitish, the two separated by a bright bicolored orange or brown (below) and white (above) (males) or white (females) ventrolateral stripe, which occupies the whole of the outermost scale row and a portion of the second row; ventrals 155–169; subcaudals 52–76, in males the base of the tail enlarged to the level of subcaudals 20–25; hemipenes long and slender, smooth, without spines. Total length 770 mm, tail length 170 mm. [after LEVITON 2003]


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CommentVenomous!

Distribution: Possibly in Bhutan (Lenz 2012). Not in Assam fide Basfore et al. 2024.

Synonymy: "Contrary to Hoge & Romano Hoge (1981: 257) and Welch (1988: 137), we consider that the specific name gramineus must be restricted to the form inhabiting the Peninsular India, and that the correct name for the species distributed in Sumatra and other parts of southeastern Asia is Trimeresurus popeiorum Smith, 1937." (from David & Vogel 1996). Mirza et al. 2023 synonymized T. yingjiangensis with T. popeiorum which was confirmed by Idiiatullina et al. 2024.

Etymology: The specific name yingjiangensis refers to the location of type specimens, Yingjiang Country, Yunnan Province, China.

Diversity: Mulcahy et al. 2017 found populations of T. popeiorum that are paraphyletic with T. nebularis but are morphologically indistinguishable from T. popeiorum and hence appear to be a cryptic species.

Similar species: Most often confused with T. stejnegeri (q.v.), the two have quite distinct hemipenes, which does not make identification of individuals in the field or in the laboratory any easier without recourse to (a) male individuals and (b) an examination of the hemipenes. However, the two species are not known to have overlapping distributions, at least based on available materials. Also, closely allied to T. popeiorum is T. yunnanensis (q.v.); ordinarily, the two are more easily be told apart by the number of midbody scale rows, 21 in T. popeiorum, 19 in T. yunnanensis (from LEVITON et al. 2003).

Type species: Trimeresurus popeiorum is the type species of the genus Popeia MALHOTRA & THORPE 2004. Popeia may not be valid fide Li et al. 2020.

For abbreviations see T. nebularis.

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

NCBI taxonID: 2653482 [yingjiangensis] 
References
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