Southern Cantil

About the Southern Cantil

Agkistrodon howardgloydi is a species of venomous snake, a pit viper in the subfamily Crotalinae of the family Viperidae. The species is endemic to Central America. It is most commonly called castellana, but it has also been called the southern cantil, Gloyd's moccasin, and a number of other colloquial names. It is a rare species with a relatively small geographic distribution in the tropical dry forest on the Pacific coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and extreme northwest Costa Rica. A. howardgloydi is a stout, medium-sized snake with a maximum total length (including tail) of 96 cm (38 in). It is a viviparous species, with females giving birth in the rainy season from May to August. No clinical reports on envenomation had been published (as of 1999), but laboratory tests and analysis indicate the venom is highly toxic and similar to its close relative Agkistrodon bilineatus, and potentially lethal.

Roger Conant's original description states: "This subspecies is named for the late Howard K. Gloyd, my close friend, colleague, and expert on pit vipers, especially the rattlesnakes. Gloyd worked for decades on the genus Agkistrodon (sensu lato), and he had predicted that a... Wikipedia →