The Asian pitviper currently identified as Trimeresurus labialis Fitzinger in Steindachner, 1867 is revised on the basis of morphological data obtained from 37 preserved specimens originating from seven islands of the Nicobar Islands. Multivariate analyses shows that these specimens can be divided into two clusters of populations which differ by a series of constant taxonomically informative mo...

To explore the venom diversity of Asian pit vipers, we investigated the structure and function of venom phospholipase A2 (PLA2) derived from two primitive tree vipers Trimeresurus puniceus and Trimeresurus borneensis. We purified six novel PLA2s from T. puniceus venom and another three from T. borneensis venom. All cDNAs encoding these PLA2s except one were cloned, and the molecular masses and ...

Didelphostrongylus hayesi gen. et sp. n. from the opossum, Didelphis marsupialis, is distinguished from other genera of the Angoistrongylinae by the structure of the dorsal and lateral rays, complex gubernaculum, and ovoviviparity. Third-stage larvae developed in Mesodon perigraptus and Triodopsis albolabris. The prepatent period was 22 days in experimentally infected opossums.

Morimotoidius cavicola sp. n. is described and illustrated from a limestone cave called Guanfeng Dong in Yichun City of western Jiangxi Province, China. It is the second hypogean and highly morphologically modified species of the genus Morimotoidius recorded in China. M. cavicola sp. n. is easily recognized by its shorter pronotum which is less expanded medially than that in M. zhushandong Pang...

Nuclear introns are commonly used as phylogenetic markers, but a number of issues related to alignment strategies, indel treatments, and the incorporation of length-variant heterozygotes (LVHs) are not routinely addressed when generating phylogenetic hypotheses. Topological congruence in relation to an extensive mitochondrial DNA multigene phylogeny (derived from 2,423 bp of 12S, 16S, ND4, and ...

On further specimens of the Pit viper Trimeresurus erythrurus (Cantor, 1839) (Squamata: Viperidae), with description a topotype and range extension to Godavari Basin, peninsular India

One hundred and ninety-nine victims of snakebite hospitalized at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital between 1898 and 1991 were studied. The male:female ratio was 1.9:1 and their mean age (+/- SD) was 30.0 +/- 18.6 years. The most common of victims were farmers and laborers. Dead snakes were identified as follows: 72 were Trimeresurus sp. (36.2%), 36 were Naja kaouthia (17.6%), 4 were Bungarus f...

Dietary data were ascertained for 229 T. stejnegeri (snout vent length >300mm) from 36 localities throughout the main island of Taiwan and the outlying Orchid (Lanyu) and Green (Ludau) Islands. Twenty nine percent of the snakes were devoid of any prey, and of the snakes containing prey, 43% of the cases were unidentifiable. This relatively large proportion of unidentifiable prey items (observed...

The major hemorrhagin from C. purpureomaculatus (mangrove pit viper) venom was purified to homogeneity and termed Maculatoxin. Maculatoxin has a molecular weight of 38 kDa as determined by SDS-PAGE. It is an acidic protein (pI= 4.2) and exhibited proteolytic and hemorrhagic activities (MHD10 = 0.84 microg in mice) but was not lethal to mice at a dose of 1 microg/g. The hemorrhagic activity of M...

A new procedure for determining the amount of venom ejected by a bite of a poisonous snake was established. The procedure consists of exposing a fresh piece of rabbit muscle to an attack by a poisonous nake, extracting the injected venom from the piece, determining the toxic activity of the extract and calculating the amount of venom ejected. We confirmed that about 90 % of the injected venom w...