Philippine pit viper facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Philippine pit viper
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Genus:	Trimeresurus
Species:	flavomaculatus
Synonyms
Megaera flavomaculatus Gray, 1842 Megaera ornata Gray, 1842 Megaera variegata Gray, 1842 Parias flavomaculatus – Gray, 1849 Parias ornata – Gray, 1849 Parias variegata – Gray, 1849 Trimeresurus flavomaculatus – Günther, 1879 Trimeresurus Schadenbergi Fischer, 1885 Lachesis flavomaculatus – Boulenger, 1896 Trimeresurus flavomaculatus flavomaculatus – Leviton, 1961 Parias flavomaculatus – Malhotra & Thorpe, 2004 Trimeresurus (Parias) flavomaculatus – David et al., 2011

Trimeresurus flavomaculatus (Philippine pit viper) is a venomous pit viper species endemic to the Philippines. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.

Description

According to Leviton (1964), the scalation includes 21 rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 170–178/175–184 ventral scales in males/females, 62–71/58–63 subcaudal scales in males/females, and 9–11 supralabial scales of which the 3rd is the largest. Toriba and Sawai (1990) give 167–179/172–184 ventral scales in males/females, 56–70/53–63 subcaudal scales in males/females, and 9–10/9–12 supralabial scales in males/females.

Geographic range

Found on the Philippine islands of Agutayan, Batan, Camiguin, Catanduanes, Dinagat, Jolo, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Panay and Polillo. The type locality given is "Philippine Islands". Leviton (1964) proposed that this be restricted to "Luzon Island".

Subspecies

Taxonomy

Gumprecht (2001, 2002) relegates T. f. halieus to synonymy and elevates T. f. mcgregori to a full species.