Russell's Viper

About the Russell's Viper

Russell's viper (Daboia russelii) is a species of highly venomous snake in the family Viperidae. The species is native to South Asia. It was described in 1797 by George Shaw and Frederick Polydore Nodder. It is named after Patrick Russell. Known for its extremely painful bite, it is considered one of the "Big Four" venomous snake species in the region.

Coluber russelii was the name proposed by George Shaw who described the species in 1797 based on a specimen presented to the British Museum by Patrick Russell. Russell described the species in 1796 and confirmed its highly venomous nature by experimenting on chickens and dogs. He added that the native people called it katuka retula poda.

Analysis of morphological and mitochondrial DNA data shows that the eastern subspecies of Russell's viper should be considered a separate species, Daboia siamensis. A number of other subspecies may be encountered in literature. including:

D. s. formosensis (Maki, 1931) occurs in Thailand and is considered a synonym of D. siamensis. D. s. limitis (Mertens, 1927) occurs in Indonesia and is considered a synonym of D. siamensis. D. r. pulchella (Gray, 1842) occurs in Sri Lanka and is considered... Wikipedia →