Agkistrodon

iAgkistrodon

Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Viperidae
Subfamily:	Crotalinae
Genus:	Agkistrodon Palisot de Beauvois, 1799

Common names: moccasins.

Agkistrodon is a genus of venomous pit vipers found in North America from the United States south to northern Costa Rica.^[1] The name Agkistrodon is derived from the Greek word ancistron, meaning fishhook). Three species are currently recognized.^[2]

[edit] Geographic range

Found in North America from the northeastern and central USA southward through peninsular Florida and southwestern Texas. In Central America on the Atlantic versant from Tamaulipas and Nuevo León southward to the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize and Guatamala. Along the Pacific coastal plane and lower foothills from Sonora south through Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica.^[1]

Species^[2]	Authority^[2]	Subsp.*^[2]	Common name	Geographic range
A. bilineatus	Günther, 1863	3	Cantil	Mexico and Central America. On the Atlantic side it is found in Mexico in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, possibly northern Veracruz and Chiapas (in the Middle Grijalva Valley). On the Yucatan Peninsula it occurs in Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and northern Belize. On the Pacific side it is found from southern Sonora in Mexico south through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to southwestern Costa Rica. On the Pacific side the distribution is almost continuous, while on the Atlantic side it is disjunct.^[1]
A. contortrix^T	Linnaeus, 1766	4	Copperhead	United States (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts), Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila).
A. piscivorus.	Lacépède, 1789	2	Cottonmouth	In the eastern United States from extreme southeastern Virginia, south through peninsular Florida and west to Arkansas, southeastern Kansas, eastern and southern Oklahoma and eastern and central Texas. A few records exist from along the Rio Grande River in Texas, but these are thought to represent isolated populations that possibly no longer exist.^[1]

*) Not including the nominate subspecies (typical form).
^T) Type species.^[1]

This genus was previously much larger and also included the following genera:^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Agkistrodon (TSN 174295). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 2 November 2006.