''Trimeresurus'' is a genus of venomous

pit viper The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . crotaline snakes (from grc, κρόταλον ''krotalon'' castanet), or pit adders, are a subfa ...

s found in Asia from the Indian Subcontinent throughout Southeast Asia,

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 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 species, with thin bodies and prehensile 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 ...

s, birds, rodents, 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, bearing live young. However, some species such as '' T. flavoviridis'', '' T. kaulbacki'', and '' T. macrolepis'' are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

, 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 varies in toxicity between species, but all are primarily hemotoxic and considered to be medically significant to humans.

Geographic range

Species in the genus ''Trimeresurus'' are found in Southeast Asia from India (including regions of the North Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand) to Southern China 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 ...

to Timor.

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.

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

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. 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'' 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 In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

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, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus fucatus, Banded pit viper.jpg, ''Trimeresurus fucatus'' from Khao Sok National Park, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus albolabris (adult, female).jpg, ''Trimeresurus albolabris'' from Kaeng Krachan National Park, 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 Khao Yai National Park, Thailand Image:Trimeresurus-popeorum-Pope's-pit-viper-(female)-Kaeng-Krachan-National-Park.jpg, ''Trimeresurus popeiorum'' from Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand