Yellow-Blotched Palm Pitviper

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HERP.MX
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Yellow-Blotched Palm Pitviper

Post by HERP.MX »

Yellow-Blotched Palm Pitviper

Despite being known from Guatemala since Osbert Salvin’s 1860 description (http://www.herp.mx/pubs/1860-Salvin-Tha ... urifer.pdf), Bothriechis aurifer remained undiscovered in México well into the 20th century.

In 1939, Rafael Martin del Campo reported a single specimen collected by one of his students at the puzzling locality of “Santa Rosa” near Comitán de Dominguéz. Unfortunately, there are no less than 11 “Santa Rosas” in the vicinity of Comitán; and to make matters worse, collected along with B. aurifer were the holotypes of two new species of Abronia: A. ochoterenai and A. leurolepis. To this day the exact location of that particularly important “Santa Rosa” remains a mystery.

Fast forward to the early 1970’s: the pioneer of Chiapan herpetology, Prof. Miguel Alvarez del Toro collected all four of the known species of Mexican Bothriechis - including Bothriechis aurifer from the Lagunas Montebello National Park on the Guatemalan border.

B. aurifer wasn’t seen again in México until 2013 when we ventured into a remote, and nameless, mountain range northeast of Las Margaritas. Inhabited exclusively by the indigenous Tojolabal people, we listed the range as the "Sierra Tojolabal" in our report of the first Bothriechis aurifer in almost 40 years.

Shown here is a specimen observed earlier this year at that same locality.

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And here are some of the original specimens from 2013:
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NACairns
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Re: Yellow-Blotched Palm Pitviper

Post by NACairns »

Wonderful, work and gorgeous snake. Within what sort of temperatures would that habitat range?
Thanks for sharing,
Nick
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Calfirecap
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Re: Yellow-Blotched Palm Pitviper

Post by Calfirecap »

Great work and we all appreciate your posts. Sounds like you are living the dream.
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