Bitis rhinoceros

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Bitis rhinoceros

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Genus: Bitis
Species:
B. rhinoceros
Binomial name
Bitis rhinoceros
(Schlegel, 1855)
Synonyms
  • Vipera rhinoceros Schlegel, 1855
  • Echidna rhinoceros
    — A.H.A. Duméril, 1856
  • C[lotho]. rhinoceros — Cope, 1860
  • V[ipera]. (Echidna) rhinoceros
    — Jan, 1863
  • Vipera (Bitis) rhinoceros
    — W. Peters, 1877
  • Bitis rhinoceros — W. Peters, 1882
  • Bitis gabonica rhinoceros
    — Mertens, 1951[2]
  • Bitis (Macrocerastes) rhinoceros
    — Lenk et al., 1999
  • Bitis rhinoceros
    — Dobiey & Vogel, 2007[3]
Common names: West African Gaboon viper,[1] Gabino viper[4]

Bitis rhinoceros is a

B. gabonica by the presence of two large nasal "horns".[4]

Description

nasal scales that look like a pair of horns on its nose. This is a characteristic that it shares with a close relative, B. nasicornis. However, B. nasicornis has a brighter color pattern and a narrower head.[6]
B. gabonica has no such enlarged nasal "horns", and is overall somewhat smaller than B. rhinoceros. Also, in B. g. gabonica, the dark triangular marking leading back from the eye towards the angle of the mouth is divided. In B. rhinoceros it is not.

Geographic range

B. rhinoceros is found in West Africa from Togo west to Guinea[1] and possibly to Guinea-Bissau,[3] including the intervening countries (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone).[1][3]

According to Spawls & Branch (1995), Ghana and Togo are at the eastern limit of the range of this subspecies, and they begin to intergrade here with B. gabonica. The distribution map they provide indicates that the general range for B. rhinoceros does not include Togo, but that there has been at least one report of a specimen found there. The distribution of B. rhinoceros now includes Nigeria. Residents of Ota, a small community in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria sighted one in 2022. [6] Togo, together with Benin and at least eastern Ghana, are part of a larger region known as the Dahomey Gap; a relatively dry region that separates the rainforests of West Africa from those of Central Africa.[7][8][9]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T13300925A13300932.en
    . Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  2. ISBN 1-893777-01-4
    (volume).
  3. ^ a b c d Bitis rhinoceros at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 3 February 2022.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-89464-877-2
    .
  5. ^ "Bitis rhinoceros". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 26 July 2006.
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-88359-029-8
    .
  7. ^ Adam D. Leaché. "Comparative Phylogeography of Reptiles and Amphibians in West Africa". Archived from the original on July 17, 2006.
  8. S2CID 129839236
    .
  9. S2CID 211159185
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bitis rhinoceros.
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