ARUNACHAL PIT VIPER

May 9, 2019

A team of herpetologists have described a new species of reddish-brown pit viper from Arunachal Pradesh. The discovery was published in the Russian Journal of Herpetology.

About:

Name: The scientific name of Arunachal pit viper is Trimeresurus arunachalensis. The new species makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it.
Type:
- It is a species of reddish-brown pit viper, a venomous snake with a unique heat-sensing system.
- With this, India now has a fifth brown pit viper. The other four — Malabar, horseshoe, hump-nosed and Himalayan — were discovered 70 years ago.
Discovery:
- It has been discovered by a team of herpetologists from a forest in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
- The discovery makes the Arunachal pit viper the second serpent to have been discovered after the non-venomous crying keelback in the State’s Lepa-Rada district in 2018.