White-lipped Island Pitviper

About the White-lipped Island Pitviper

Trimeresurus insularis, commonly known as the Indonesian pit viper, Lesser Sunda Islands pit viper, Komodo Island pit viper, Sunda white-lipped pit viper or red-tailed pit viper, also popularly known as blue pit viper, blue viper or blue insularis, is a species of venomous pit viper found in eastern Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The scalation includes 21 rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 156–164/156–167 ventral scales in males/females, 70–75/54–59 subcaudal scales in males/females, and 7–12 supralabial scales. Their color patterns are often found to be green or blue-green, with specific populations even containing yellow variants as well.

It is found in Indonesia on eastern Java, Adonara, Alor, Bali, Flores, Komodo, Lombok, Padar, Rinca, Romang, Rote, Sumba, Sumbawa, Timor and Wetar. They are also found in neighboring Timor-Leste. The type locality given is "Soe, Timor". They are arboreal and can be found in dry monsoon forests at elevations up to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) above sea level.

Kramer, E. 1977. Zur Schlangenfauna Nepals. Rev. suisse Zool. 84 (3): 721–761. (Trimeresurus albolabris insularis, p.... Wikipedia →