A general consideration of snake poisoning and observations on neotropical pit-vipers

Abstract

7OCLELO2s ae kar Saye. Sl 7Arrica. Causus rhombeatus; Bitis arietans, the puff-adder; Cerastes cornutus, the horned viper; and Hchis carinatus.CoLuBRIDAE. Among the Colubridae, note may be made of the following: America. Micrurus! fulvius, the harlequin snake; M. corallinus, M. frontalis, and M. marcgravit, or coral snakes.Asta. Naja naja, the cobra; N. bungarus, the king cobra, hamadryas or skull-breaker, the largest poisonous snake known, measuring sometimes 5 meters in length; Bungarus candidus, the common krait; B. fasciatus, the banded krait.Arrica. Naja haje, the Egyptian asp, and N. flava.OcrantA. Diemenia textilis, the brown snake; Pseudechis porphyriacus, the black snake; Denisonia superba, the copperhead (of Australia); Notechis scutatus, the tiger snake; Acanthopis antarcticus, the death-adder.Evropre. Vipera berus, the European viper.Besides the above mentioned Colubridae, which are land species, there are the water species (subfamily Hydrophiinae), e. g., Platurus and Enhydrina, which are found in several zones of the Pacific and Indian Ocean and are deserving of notice.Porson GuANpbs. The poison is the secretion from the supra-labial glands of the Ophidians. These glands are found on either side of the head below and back of the orbit, corresponding to the parotid glands of the mammals.The poison gland, properly defined, is classed with the serous glands, although the secretion contains a great deal of mucous substance expelled from cells existing in the excretory canal 'close to its termination, and from more or less abundant alveoli surrounding the same. Its dimensions, which are generally in proportion to the size of the snake, and are relatively larger in the American and Asiatic species than in the European, sometimes reach considerable proportions, as observed, for example, in the species of the genus Doliophis, whose glands extend to the precordial region. The gland is surrounded by a fibrous capsule 1 N.B. Micrurus as the earlier name must replace the more commonly used Elaps. »OSCLELO Te soar AG oe BG ky SNAKE POISONING 5 ' O. Magalhaes. Contr. para o estudo dos ophidios brasileiros. Repr.

Revisão taxonômica do complexo Bothrops neuwiedi (Serpentes, Viperidae) com descrição de uma nova espécie

“…Among the individuals that presented pattern A, there is type-material of three formal taxa: Lachesis lutzi Miranda-Ribeiro, 1915 (holotype AL 5337 from Santa Maria da Vitória, Rio Corrente, BA) ( Figure 12A-B piauhyensis Amaral, 1925 (holotype IBSP 1672 from Fazenda Grande, right edge from Rio Gurguéia, PI) ( Figure 12C to F). A principal components analysis (PCA) including males of these three taxa (the number of females was low) did not separate these specimens ( Figure 13).…”

“…A principal components analysis (PCA) including males of these three taxa (the number of females was low) did not separate these specimens ( Figure 13). Among the specimens with pattern B are the holotypes of the following subspecies: Bothrops neuwiedii bahiensis Amaral, 1925 (IBSP 3012 from Itiúba, BA) ( Figure 14A One of the individuals analyzed with pattern C is the holotype of Bothrops neuwiedii pauloensis Amaral, 1925 …”

“…In pattern B, the pigmented portions are darker and the borders of the white spots in the supralabials are well defined. The pair of occipital spots tend to be longer in pattern B than C. The unique name available to refer to the animals with pattern C is Bothrops pauloensis Amaral, 1925. Pattern D No available name was associated with the specimens that presented pattern D. Perhaps, the intention of Amaral (1925) was to name such individuals when describing Bothrops neuwiedii goyazensis from Ipameri, GO. In fact, pattern D is the most common pattern in the occurrence area of this subspecies, including the typelocality.…”

“…The descriptions of these subspecies were based on the coloration and patterns of the body and head markings, because meristic characteristics overlapped (Amaral 1925(Amaral , 1927(Amaral , 1930c(Amaral , 1933b. The recognized subspecies were: Bothrops neuwiedi neuwiedi Wagler, 1824, B. n. bolivianus Amaral, 1927, B. n. diporus Cope, 1862, B. n. goyazensis Amaral, 1925, B. n. lutzi (Miranda-Ribeiro, 1915, B. n. mattogrossensis Amaral, 1925, B. n. meridionalis Müller, 1885, B. n. paranaensis Amaral, 1925, B. n. pauloensis Amaral, 1925, B. n. piauhyensis Amaral, 1925 (Cope, 1870), and B. n. urutu Lacerda, 1884. The orthography "neuwiedii" (with two "i") was used beginning with Wagler (1830) and continued unabated, until Hoge (1966) reverted to the original spelling "neuwiedi", as originally proposed by Wagler (1824 (Cope 1870), became B. n. pubescens (Hoge 1959(Hoge , 1966. B. n. minasensis, previously described as Bothrops urutu (Lacerda 1884), became B. n. urutu (Amaral 1937, Hoge 1966.…”

“…Of 593.207 venomous snakes received by the Instituto Butantan, from 1900 to 1962, B. neuwiedi was the third more common species, with 28.965 individuals (Belluomini 1968). In certain areas, this species reaches notable densities (Fonseca 1949), being the responsible for most of the ophidic accidents (Amaral 1925, Abalos and Baez 1963, Cei 1987. Morphological variations can reflect variations of the venom and vice versa, as was already demonstrated in Echis carinatus (Warrell andArnett 1976, Mebs andKornalik 1981), Naja naja (Warrell 1986, Wüster and Thorpe 1989, 1991, Vipera russeli (Wüster et al 1992a, b) and Bothrops complex (Furtado et al 1991, Francischetti et al 1998, Rodrigues et al 1998.…”