Tropidolaemus wagleri
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| iWagler's Viper | ||||||||||||||||||||
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 Wagler's Viper
Tropidolaemus wagleri |
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| Tropidolaemus wagleri Boie, 1827 |
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Cophias wagleri |
The Wagler's viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri) is a species venomous pit viper native to southeast Asia. They are sometimes referred to as the temple viper because of their abundance around the Temple of the Azure Cloud in Malaysia. They have undergone numerous taxonomic reclassifications over the years, they were once considered to be in the genus Trimeresurus, but have distinctly different morphology, and venom characteristics to other pit vipers, so were classified in their own genus, along with the Hutton's viper, Tropidolaemus huttoni.
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[edit] Description
Wagler's vipers are sexually dimorphic in that females grow to approximately 1 m in length, while males typically do not grow beyond 75 cm. They have a large triangular shaped head, with a relatively thin body. They are almost entirely arboreal and have a prehensile tail to aid in climbing.
They are found in a wide variety of colors and patterns, which often referred to as "phases". Some sources even classify the different phases as subspecies. Phases vary greatly from having a black or brown coloration as a base, with orange and yellow banding to others having a light green as the base color, with yellow or orange banding, and many variations therein.
[edit] Behavior
Typically docile, the Wagler's viper is a traditional lie-in-wait predator. Remaining motionless for long periods of time awaiting for prey to pass by. When prey passes by, or if disturbed, they are capable of fast strikes. Their venom is a strong hemotoxin, and is considered medically significant to humans. Their primary diet consists of rodents, birds, and lizards.
[edit] Geographic range
The Wagler's viper is found throughout the countries of Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
[edit] Subspecies
Sources disagree on the validity of T. wagleri subspecies, believing them to be merely locality color and pattern variations, but there are three generally accepted forms:
[edit] References
- Species Tropidolaemus wagleri at the EMBL Reptile Database
