Tropidolaemus wagleri

Common names: Wagler's pit viper, temple viper, temple pit viper,^[2] more.

Tropidolaemus wagleri is a venomous pitviper species native to southeast Asia. No subspecies are currently recognized.^[3] They are sometimes referred to as the temple vipers because of their abundance around the Temple of the Azure Cloud in Malaysia.

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Description

  This species is sexually dimorphic: the females grow to approximately 1 m in length, while males typically do not exceed 75 cm. They have a large triangular shaped head, with a relatively thin body. Almost entirely arboreal, the tail is prehensile to aid in climbing.

They are found in a wide variety of colors and patterns, often referred to as "phases". In the past, some researchers classified the different phases as subspecies. The phases vary greatly from having a black or brown coloration as a base, with orange and yellow banding to others having a light green as the base color, with yellow or orange banding, and many variations therein.

Common names

Wagler's pit viper, temple viper, temple pit viper,^[2] bamboo snake, temple snake, speckled pit viper,^[4] temple pitviper.^[5]

Geographic range

Found in southern Thailand west Malaysia, in Indonesia on Sumatra, the islands of the Riau Archipelago, Bangka, Billiton, Nias, the Mentawai Islands (Siberut), Natuna, Karimata, Borneo (Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan), Sulawesi and Buton, and in the Philippines on the islands of Balabac, Basilan, Bohol, Dinagat, Jolo, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Negros, Palawan, Samar and Tumindao. A type locality is not included in the original description, although Schlegel (1837) given "Sumatra".^[1]

Behavior

Typically docile, this is a typical lie-in-wait predator, remaining motionless for long periods of time waiting for prey to pass by. When prey does pass by, or if disturbed, they can strike quickly.

Feeding

Their primary diet consists of rodents, birds, and lizards.

Venom

Their venom is a strong hemotoxin, and is considered medically significant to humans.

Taxonomy

This species has undergone much taxonomic reclassification over the years and was previously placed in the genus Trimeresurus. However, their distinctly different morphology and venom characteristics set them apart, so that eventually a new genus was erected in which they were placed together with Hutton's viper, Tropidolaemus huttoni.

See also

• List of crotaline species and subspecies
• Crotalinae by common name
• Crotalinae by taxonomic synonyms
• Snakebite

References