The Dangerously Venomous Snakes of Myanmar Illustrated Checklist with Keys

No fewer than 39 species of dangerously venomous snakes are currently known to inhabit Myanmar and the adjacent coastal waters. Of these, 15 are sea snakes and except for two, Laticauda colubrina and Laticauda laticauda, none voluntarily come onto land (occasionally, obligate marine species may be carried onto shore during severe weather by wave action or enter river deltas in brackish water). Of the remaining 24 species, all are terrestrial in the sense that none voluntarily enters coastal waters. And, of the terrestrial forms, several, such as Trimeresurus albolabris, favor arboreal habitats and are usually found resting on tree limbs. All of the terrestrial species can swim, and some are occasionally found swimming in the rivers and streams as well as in flooded rice paddies. Two families of dangerously venomous snakes are represented in the Myanmar herpetofauna: Elapidae (cobras, kraits, and coral snakes [subfamily Elapinae], and sea snakes and Australian elapids [subfamily Hydrophiinae]), and Viperidae (true vipers [subfamily Viperinae], pitvipers [subfamily Crotalinae], and Azemiops [subfamily Azemiopinae]). Known mildly venomous snakes found there, mostly referred to the very large snake family Colubridae, include the rearfanged snakes of the Asian vine or whip snake genus Ahaetulla, the cat-eyed snakes (genus Boiga), the genus Psammodynastes, and the aquatic and semi-aquatic snakes of the genera Enhydris, Cerberus, Cantoria, Fordonia, and Bitia. How dangerous any of these are to humans is still an open matter for research. In a like manner, several of the supposedly nonvenomous colubrids have been shown to have toxic salivas and some should be considered mildly if not dangerously venomous. Among these are members of the genera Xenochrophis, Amphiesma, and Rhabdophis. What we do know is that we often underestimate the severity of many snakebites of both juvenile dangerously venomous and supposedly non-dangerously venomous snakes. Yet, bites of just such animals have been implicated in the deaths of several well-known and knowledgeable professional herpetologists, notably Karl Patterson Schmidt who, in 1957, at the age of 67, was bitten by a juvenile boomslang (Dispholidus typus), an African rear-fanged snake, and died one day later, Fred Shannon, M.D., who, in 1965, was bitten by Crotalus scutellatus, and died shortly thereafter, Robert Mertens, who was bitten by the African rear-fanged snake, Thelotornis capensis, in 1975, and most recently, Joseph Slowinski, who at the age of 38 was bitten by a 30-cm long juvenile krait, Bungarus sp.3, and died within 48 hours. (See Appendix A for comments relating to procedures for handling venomous snakebites in Myanmar.) Needless to say, care should always be exercised when handling any snake, even those that are supposedly nonvenomous. And, it must be remembered, it is often difficult to distinguish venomous and nonvenomous species without careful inspection. In Myanmar, for instance, several PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES