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Vipera lotievi NILSON, TUNIYEV, ORLOV, HOGGREN & ANDREN, 1995

IUCN Red List - Vipera lotievi - Near Threatened, NT

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Lotiev’s viper
G: Lotievs Otter
Russian: Гадюка Лотиева 
SynonymVipera lotievi NILSON et al. 1995: 21
Vipera berus — (fide KHALIKOV, pers. comm.)
Vipera ursini renardi — (fide KHALIKOV, pers. comm.)
Vipera (Pelias) lotievi — NILSON et al. 1999: 103
Vipera lotievi — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 406
Vipera renardi lotievi — DELY & JOGER 2005
Pelias lotievi — WALLACH et al. 2014: 544
Pelias lotievi — BEKOSHVILI & DORONIN 2015
Pelias lotievi — TUNIYEV 2016
Pelias lotievi — ISKENDEROV et al. 2017
Pelias lotievi — DUNAEV & ORLOVA 2017
Pelias lotievi — TUNIYEV et al. 2019: 147 
DistributionRussia (northern slope of Caucasus), Azerbaijan

Type locality: “Armkhi, Checheno-Ingushetia, Russia, below Mt. Stolovaya, 2000 m. altitude”.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesHolotype: ZISP (ZIL) 20309, female; paratypes: ZISP 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A species of the Vipera ursinii complex characterized by polymorphism in color-pattern, including "bilineate pattern" of the same kind as in V. seanei, and "bronze" unimorphs. External morphology evolved as typical for mountain taxa of the ursinii complex but not similar to any of the other in color pattern.
From the sympatric "east-dinniki" it differs in several scalation characters and in color of the belly (Table 9, Fig. 11). In lotievi the belly is generally white, preocular in contact with nasal, snout concave, 138 or more ventrals, always a single apical, less fragmentized crown scales (7-16), parietal ocellated spot present, iris not gold-edged in life. In "east-dinniki" the belly is black, preocular separated from nasal, snout not concave, 136 or less ventrals, apical single or divided, more fragmentized crown scales (10-21), no parietal ocellated spot, iris gold-edged in life.
From the allopatric renardi it differs besides color pattern in morphology by having light supralabials (sutures heavily colored in black in renardi), a higher rostral index, smaller size, white belly (dark in renardi), and a different niche by being alpine (renardi is a lowland steppe inhabitant). No future reproductive cohesion can be postulated.
It is separated from the likewise allopatric eriwanensis in the Armenian highlands by the semidesert lowland of the Kura River Valley, that separates the Big Caucasus from the Small Caucasus. No connection can be postulated in an evolutionary time frame. Besides color pattern there is a differentiation in morphology by eriwanensis having a higher number of crown scales and a somewhat lower ventral count, and preocular separated from nasal to a higher degree (Tables 10 and 11). (Nilson et al. 1995)


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CommentVenomous!

Synonymy: V. lotievi is nested within V. renardi (F. Martínez-Freiría, pers. comm., 5 Sep 2019, SEH) 
EtymologyNamed after K. Yu Lotiev, a Russian herpetologist who collected the viper holotype (1986). 
References
  • Bekoshvili, David and Igor V Doronin. 2015. New data on the distribution of snakes in Georgia (Causasus). Herpetological Review 46 (3): 388-390 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Dunaev E.A., Orlova V.F. 2017. Amphibians and reptiles of Russia. Atlas and determination. 2nd. ed. Moscow: Phyton XXI, 328 p
  • Iskenderov, T. M.; S. B. Akhmedov, and S. N. Bunyatova 2017. LOTIEV’S VIPER (PELIAS LOTIEVI, SERPENTES, VIPERIDAE), A SPECIES NEW TO THE FAUNA OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC. Zoologichesky zhurnal 96 (1): 121–124
  • Mallow, D. Ludwig, D. & Nilson, G. 2003. True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger, Malabar, Florida, 410 pp. [review in HR 35: 200, Reptilia 35: 74]
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • Nilson G; Tuniyev B S; Orlov N; Hoggren M; Andren C 1995. Systematics of the vipers of the Caucasus: Polymorphism or sibling species? Asiatic Herpetological Research 6: 1-16 - get paper here
  • Nilson,G.; TUNIYEV,B.; ANDRÉN,C. & ORLOV,N. 1999. Vipers of Caucasus: Taxonomic considerations. Kaupia (Darmstadt) (8): 103-106
  • Phelps, T. 2010. Old World Vipers. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 558 pp. [critical review in Sauria 33 (3): 19 and HR 43: 503]
  • Tuniyev B.S. 2016. Rare species of shield-head vipers in the Caucasus. Nature Conservation Research 1 (3): 11–25 - get paper here
  • Tuniyev, B.; Nilson, G. & Andrén, C. 2010. A new species of viper (Reptilia, Viperidae) from the Altay and Saur Mountains, Kazakhstan. Russ. J. Herpetol. 17 (2): 110-120 - get paper here
  • Tuniyev, B.S.; N.L. Orlov, N.B. Ananjeva and A.L. Aghasyan 2019. Snakes of the Caucasus: taxonomic diversity, distribution, conservation. St. Petersburg, Moscow. KMK Scientific Press. 2019. 276 pp. - get paper here
  • Tuniyev, S. B.; N. Orlov, B. Tuniyev, A. Kidov 2013. On the Taxonomical Status of Steppe Viper from Foothills of the South Macroslope of the East Caucasus. Russ. J. Herpetol. 20 (2): 129-146 - 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.
 
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