Reptile & Amphibian Forums

respected wolfgang,

sir pls send me information about various websites which gives information about behaviour og diffrent type of vipera.what is diffrence between pit vipers and non pit vipers?

thanking so much

farokh

With all due respect, and not intending to answer for Wolfgang...

What you are asking him in this post and your previous one is very vague, and tantamount to educating you from the ground up with respect to viperid and crotalid snakes. Most of this information you could easily find yourself with a few internet searches.

Some of the 'species" you ask about in your previous post are not even valid species..for instance:

Vipera lachesis
Vipera and Lachesis are two different genera.

Vipera daboia
Daboia is a genus under which some former members of the genus Vipera have recently been placed. For example Daboia russelli russelli was formerly known as Vipera russelli russelli. Some members remain under Vipera

The difference between Pit Vipers and True Vipers...for a very simplistic answer, it is the presence or absence of heat-sensitive loreal pits. There are other differences too, but once again the question is entirely too vague and general to be adequately answered.

The question on differences in behavior between all of the different species of Vipera is probably the most vague and most impossible to answer in the form in which it was asked.

I would suggest doing some of your own research, then refining your questions.

Respected Sir,

You are perfectly right. My questions are too vague, but what to do? I am an MD doctor with a medical background , not having enough knowledge in this field. I am interested in studying snakes in Homoeopathy and I am doing a research on that. But the information of the snakes mentioned in Homoeopathic literature is around 100 years old, so I am thoroughly confused as through the taxonomy of certain snakes mentioned in Homoeopathic literature. So please forgive my ignorance and kindly help me to know which snakes at present are in which family and sub-family-
for example - Lachesis muta, Cencheris contortix, toxicophis, Hydrophis cynocinatus, Vipera berus, Vipera aspis, Vipera daboia, Vipera lachesis, Vipera redi, Vipera torva.

Thank you,

Farokh Master

OK. The family Viperidae is divided into two sub-families, viperinae and crotalinae. They break out like this:

Viperinae(True Vipers) contains the following genera:

Vipera
Bitis
Cerastes
Macrovipera
Daboia
Eristicophis

Crotalinae(Pit Vipers) contains the following genera:

Crotalus
Agkistrodon
Dienagkistrodon
Sistrurus
Trimeresurus
Lachesis
Bothrops
Bothriechis

and others....

So, for instance, if you see the name Vipera berus you know the animal belongs to the genus Vipera, it is one of the true vipers under the family Viperidae and sub-family Viperinae, and the species name is Vipera berus.

The other major snake families are:

Elapidae (Cobras, Kraits, Coral Snakes, Mambas, Taipans, etc.)

Colubridae (Garter Snakes, Rat Snakes, Indigo Snakes, Pine Snakes, King Snakes, Water Snakes, etc.) There are some venomous snakes in this family also and a few are dangerous to man. The venomous snakes in this family are all rear-fanged.

Hydrophidae (Sea Snakes)

Boidae (Boas and Pythons)

So you can see that there are literally hundreds of species involved in your question (22 in the genus Vipera alone), plus numerous sub-species. To answer your questions in the manner in which they were asked would be impossible without writing a book on Viperinae and Crotalinae.

To my knowledge, Vipera redi is an obsolete classification for one of the European vipers that ranges through Italy.

Is your field of interest involved with the homeopathic treatment of snakebite from these species, or homeopathic treatments for other ailments using the venoms of these species?

>>Respected Sir,
>>
>>You are perfectly right. My questions are too vague, but what to do? I am an MD doctor with a medical background , not having enough knowledge in this field. I am interested in studying snakes in Homoeopathy and I am doing a research on that. But the information of the snakes mentioned in Homoeopathic literature is around 100 years old, so I am thoroughly confused as through the taxonomy of certain snakes mentioned in Homoeopathic literature. So please forgive my ignorance and kindly help me to know which snakes at present are in which family and sub-family-
>>for example - Lachesis muta, Cencheris contortix, toxicophis, Hydrophis cynocinatus, Vipera berus, Vipera aspis, Vipera daboia, Vipera lachesis, Vipera redi, Vipera torva.

As I mentioned before, the best website for the sort of information you are looking for is the EMBL Reptile database - see the link below.

Lachesis muta = Lachesis muta, family Viperidae, subfamily Crotalinae

Cencheris controtrix = Agkistrodon contortrix, family Viperidae, subfamily Crotalinae

Toxicophis = Agkistrodon

Vipera berus = Vipera berus, Family Viperidae, Subfamily Viperinae

Vipera aspis = Vipera aspis, Family Viperidae, Subfamily Viperinae

Vipera daboia = Daboia russelii, Family Viperidae, Subfamily Viperinae

Vipera lachesis = ?? Bitis arietans, Family Viperidae, Subfamily Viperinae

Vipera redi = Vipera aspis, Family Viperidae, Subfamily Viperinae

Vipera torva = Vipera berus

Hydrophis cynocinatus = Hydrophis cyanocinctus, Family Elapidae, Subfamily Hydrophiinae

It's truly amazing, the taxonomy used in homeopathy is even more out of date than the average issue of Toxicon!!!

For other info on websites, I would suggest you do a search using www.google.com - as oldherper said, you can't expect people to basically write you a textbook on venomous snakes at the drop of a hat.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers

Wolfgang Wuster
EMBL reptile database

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One small thing that may (or may not) be of some help to you...
The true vipers are basically Old World snakes, & the pit vipers are primarily New World snakes. There are exceptions, but this holds true for the vast majority.

~~Greg~~