Hi there all,

The question that I have regarding these wornderful animals is rather short. Is there a definitive scientific publication that deals with the taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the genus Trimeresurus? If so, where is it?

I am sure that this is something that any tree viper fan would absolutely love to get their hands on. The reason that I ask is because I am faced with a bit of problem, that is that I like to know what I am looking at. I have a guide to the snakes of South East Asia, but it is very superficial when it comes to this group of snakes.

I am currently traveling in Malaysia where I am spending as much of my time staggering around in the forest at night as possible, looking for all the interesting little creatures in order to photograph them. I must admit that snakes are little harder to come by than frogs or scorpions, and as of yet I have only seen any Trimeresurus in zoos, snake parks and butterfly gardens.

Today I saw what I think might be T. popeorum for the first time. I am currently in the Cameron highlands, and my jaw just about hit the floor when I saw them. They have a blue stripe running down each side, just like some of the T. steijngeri pics I have seen. I also saw a Temple viper, much, much greener than the ones from the lowlands which are more yellow. Still has the typical patterning of the specimens from the pensinsula though.

For those that would like to know, my experience with herps in this part of the world has been very bitter sweet so far. I have seen animals that fetch very high prices in western countries while roaming around in caves, really awesome experience. At the same time I have seen the complete lack of care that they have when in captivity anywhere. I think that the mentality goes something like: "Oh well, if it dies we will just catch another one".

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out with any info on actually identifying tree vipers in the field.

Cherio for now

Ian

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