''Atheris katangensis'', also known as the Katanga Mountain bush viper and other

common names In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contras ...

, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of venomous viper found in the eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

and in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. No

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are currently recognized.

Description

It attains a maximum total length (body + tail) of only , making this the smallest member of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Atheris ''Atheris'' is a genus of Viperinae, vipers known as bush vipers.Spawls S, William Roy Branch, Branch B (1995). ''The Dangerous Snakes of Africa''. Ralph Curtis Books. Dubai: Oriental Press. 192 pp. . They are found only in tropical Sub-Saharan ...

''.Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. 2003. ''True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers''. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. 359 pp. . The head is flat, triangular, distinct from the neck, and covered with small keeled scales. The snout is rounded. Midbody there are 24–31 rows of

dorsal scales In snakes, the dorsal scales are the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, but do not include the ventral scales. Campbell JA, Lamar WW (2004). ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publis ...

. The tail is short. Males and females have 45–59 and 38–42

subcaudal scales In snakes, the subcaudal scales are the enlarged plates on the underside of the tail. Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. (7t ...

respectively. The color pattern consists of a purple-brown or yellow-brown ground color, overlaid with paired dorsolateral lines of a contrasting shade. These lines may break into a zigzag pattern and run from head to tail. The belly is yellowish, as is the tip of the tail.

Common names

''Atheris katangensis'' is also known as the Shaba bush viper,Spawls S, Branch B. 1995. ''The Dangerous Snakes of Africa''. Ralph Curtis Books. Dubai: Oriental Press. 192 pp. . Katanga Mountain bush viper, Upemba bush viper, Katanga bush viper, and the Katanga tree viper.Brown JH. 1973. ''Toxicology and Pharmacology of Venoms from Poisonous Snakes''. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. 184 pp. LCCCN 73–229. .

Geographic range

It is found in the

Upemba National Park Upemba National Park ( French: ''Parc national d'Upemba'') is a large national park in Haut-Lomami, Lualaba Province & Haut-Katanga Province (formerly in Katanga Province) of the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. Geogr ...

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...

(Shaba Province) in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Zambia. The type locality given is ''"Mubale-Munte (région du confluent), sous-affluent de la rive droite de la Lufira lt. 1480 Park National de l'Upemba"''. Their habitat consists of

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

along rivers at altitudes between 1,200 and 1,500 meters (about 4,000–5,000 ft).

Description

Common names

Geographic range

References

Further reading