Agkistrodon howardgloydi

Agkistrodon howardgloydi is a species of pit viper, a venomous snake in the subfamily Crotalinae in the family Viperidae.[5] The subspecies is endemic to Central America.

Agkistrodon howardgloydi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Genus: Agkistrodon
Species:
A. howardgloydi
Binomial name
Agkistrodon howardgloydi
Conant, 1984[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Agkistrodon bilineatus howardgloydi
    Conant, 1984
  • Agkistrodon howardgloydi
    — Porras et al., 2013
Common names: castellana, Gloyd's cantil, Gloyd's moccasin,[3] southern cantil.[4]

Etymology

The specific name, howardgloydi, is in honor of American herpetologist Howard K. Gloyd.[6]

Description

Of the ten specimens of A. howardgloydi available to Gloyd and Conant (1990) from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the largest male was 96 cm (37 3⁄4 in) and the largest female 82 cm (32 1⁄4 in) in total length (including tail). According to Villa (1984), adults in Nicaragua almost never exceed 135 cm (53 1⁄4 in) in length. In both sexes, the tail length is 19% of the total body length.[3]

Scalation includes 23 rows of keeled dorsal scales at midbody; 128-135 ventral scales; and 54-61 subcaudal scales, roughly half of which are paired, especially towards the tail tip.[3]

The dorsal color pattern consists of light to medium reddish brown ground color overlaid with 10-14/13-17 broad brown or brownish crossbands in males/females. Large adult males tend to be melanistic. Juveniles are more lightly colored, even to the point of being bright red. The head is clearly marked on either side with two longitudinal light lines: the upper one is narrow and broken or even absent posterior to the supraocular scale; while the lower one is wider and split into two parts which may or may not meet at the suture of the third supralabial scale.[3]

Geographic range and habitat

Agkistrodon howardgloydi is found in the dry Pacific lowlands of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The type locality given is "0.8 km north Mirador el Cañon del Tigre, Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, Provincia Guanacaste, Costa Rica".[1]

Taxonomy

Agkistrodon howardgloydi was elevated to full species status from A. b. howardgloydi by Porras et al. in 2013.[2]

References
  1. McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
  2. "Agkistrodon howardgloydi ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  3. Gloyd HK, Conant R (1990). Snakes of the Agkistrodon Complex: A Monographic Review. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 614 pp. 52 plates. LCCN 89-50342. ISBN 0-916984-20-6.
  4. Porras et al. (2013).
  5. "Agkistrodon howardgloydi ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
  6. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Agkistrodon bilineatus howardgloydi, pp. 102, 126).

Further reading


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