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| Protobothrops himalayanus
Pan, Chettri, Yang, Jiang, Wang, Zhang & Vogel, 2013
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Abstract
A new species of the genus Protobothrops Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1983, was described from Jilong County, southern Tibet, China, and Chungthang, northern Sikkim, India. It differs from congeners by the following characters: 1) relatively large body size (total length up to 1510 mm); 2) dorsal scale rows 25–25–19; 3) except for the smooth outermost row, dorsal scales are weakly keeled; 4) relatively high number of ventral (198–216) and subcaudal (65–76 pairs) scales; 5) 7–8 supralabials; 6) 11 to 13 infralabials; 7) dorsal head uniform dark brown, laterally a reddish-brown obscure postocular streak; 8) dorsum of trunk and tail olive, with distinct black edged red brown transverse bands across the body and tail; and 9) eye from bright brown and reddish brown to mildly brown. The new species was also observed from the Haa Valley in western Bhutan.
Keywords: new species, Protobothrops, Viperidae, Squamata, Himalayan region
Hujun PAN, Basundhara CHETTRI, Daode YANG, Ke JIANG, Kai WANG, Liang ZHANG and Gernot VOGEL. 2013. A New Species of the Genus Protobothrops (Squamata: Viperidae) from Southern Tibet, China and Sikkim, India. Asian Herpetological Research. 4(2): 109–115.
Himalayan lance-headed pit viper