''Trimeresurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

pit vipers found in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

from the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

throughout

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and the

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

. Currently 44

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are recognized. Common names include Asian palm pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . Asian lanceheads, and green pit vipers.United States Navy (1991). ''Poisonous Snakes of the World''. New York: U.S. Government / Dover Publications Inc. 203 pp. .

Description

Most species in the genus ''Trimeresurus'' are relatively small, primarily

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

species, with thin bodies and

prehensile Prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ (anatomy), organ that has Adaptation (biology), adapted for grasping or holding. The word is derived from the Latin term ''prehendere'', meaning "to grasp". The ability to grasp is likely der ...

tails. Most ''Trimeresurus'' species are typically green in color, but some species also have yellow, black, orange, red, or gold markings.

Feeding

The diet of ''Trimeresurus'' species includes a variety of animals, including

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

s, and other small

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

Reproduction

Like most viper species, many of the species in the genus ''Trimeresurus'' are

ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

, bearing live young. However, some species such as '' T. flavoviridis'', '' T. kaulbacki'', and '' T. macrolepis'' are oviparous, laying

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. Also, the reproductive biology of some ''Trimeresurus'' species is as yet unknown.

Venom

''Trimeresurus''

venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

varies in toxicity between species, but all are primarily

hemotoxic Hemotoxins, haemotoxins or hematotoxins are toxins that destroy red blood cells, disrupt blood clotting, and/or cause organ degeneration and generalized tissue damage. The term ''hemotoxin'' is to some degree a misnomer since toxins that damage t ...

and considered to be medically significant to humans.

Geographic range

Species in the genus ''Trimeresurus'' are found in

from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(including regions of the North Chotanagpur division of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

) to

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

Species

''*) Not including the

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

.''
^T)

Type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

Taxonomy

Additional species that may be recognized by other sources include: * '' T. barati'' Regenass & Kramer, 1981. Commonly called Barat's bamboo viper, found in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. * '' T. fucatus'' Vogel, David & Pauwels, 2004. Commonly called the Siamese peninsula pit viper and found in southern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The genus ''Trimeresurus'' (''sensu lato'') has been the subject of considerable taxonomic work since 2000, resulting in the recognition of additional

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

within this complex. Most authors now recognise the genus ''

Protobothrops ''Protobothrops'' is a genus of venomous pit vipers found in Asia.. The venom of ''Protobothrops'' can be diverse and unique across individual organisms of the same and differing species and has demonstrated the ability to evolve in an accelera ...

'' for the species ''cornutus'', ''flavoviridis'', ''jerdonii'', ''kaulbacki'', ''mucrosquamatus'', ''tokarensis'', ''xiangchengensis'',Malhotra A, Thorpe RS (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.Castoe TA, Parkinson CL (2006). "Bayesian mixed models and the phylogeny of pitvipers (Viperidae: Serpentes)". ''Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 39: 91-110. since these have been shown not to be closely related to other ''Trimeresurus'' in recent phylogenetic analyses. In addition, Malhotra and Thorpe (2004) proposed a radical shake up of the entire genus, splitting ''Trimeresurus'' into seven genera. Their proposed arrangement (including species described since 2004) is shown in the table below: This new arrangement has been followed by many, but not all subsequent authors. David et al. (2011) considered some of the genera of Malhotra & Thorpe to be subgenera of the genus ''Trimeresurus'', creating new combinations such as ''"Trimeresurus (Parias) flavomaculatus"'', ''"Trimeresurus (Popeia) popeiorum"'', ''"Trimeresurus (Viridovipera) stejnegeri"'', etc.David, Patrick; Vogel, Gernot; Dubois, Alain (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.

Gallery

Image:Trimeresurus vogeli, Vogel's Pit Viper (juvenile) - Khao Yai National Park 01.jpg, A juvenile ''T. vogeli'' in

Khao Yai National Park Khao Yai National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติเขาใหญ่, , ) is a national park in Thailand. Established in 1962 as Thailand's first national park, it is the third largest national park in Thailand. Descri ...

, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus fucatus, Banded pit viper.jpg, ''Trimeresurus fucatus'' from

Khao Sok National Park Khao Sok National Park ( th, เขาสก, ) is in Surat Thani Province, Thailand. Its area is 461,712 rai ~ , and it includes the Cheow Lan Lake contained by the Ratchaprapha Dam. The park is the largest area of virgin forest in southern ...

, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus albolabris (adult, female).jpg, ''Trimeresurus albolabris'' from

Kaeng Krachan National Park Kaeng Krachan National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติแก่งกระจาน, , ) is the largest national park of Thailand. It is on the border with Burma, contiguous with the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve. It is a pop ...

, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus gumprechti.jpg, ''Trimeresurus gumprechti'', Gumprecht's green pit viper, from

Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติภูหินร่องกล้า, ) is a national park located in the Loei Province, Loei and Phitsanulok Province, Phitsanulok Provinces of Thailand. The protec ...

, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus macrops, Large-eyed pit viper.jpg, ''Trimeresurus macrops'' from

, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus-popeorum-Pope's-pit-viper-(female)-Kaeng-Krachan-National-Park.jpg, ''Trimeresurus popeiorum'' from

, Thailand