Common names: Lansberg's hognosed pit viper.Campbell JA, Lamar WW (2004). The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 volumes. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates. 870 pp., 1,500 plates. .
Porthidium lansbergii is a species of venomous snake, a pit viper in the family Viperidae. The species is native to eastern Central America and northwestern South America. Three subspecies are recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.
Etymology The specific name, lansbergii, is in honor of "M[onsieur]. de Lansberge" (Reinhart Frans von Lansberge), Dutch consul at Caracas, Venezuela, in 1841.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Porthidium lansbergii, p. 151).
Description Adults of P. lansbergii average in total length (including tail), with a maximum of . A terrestrial snake, it is moderately slender.
Common names Common names for P. lansbergii include Lansberge's hog-nosed pit-viper. It is also called patoca in Colombia and Panama.
Geographic range P. lansbergii is found in extreme eastern Central America in the xeric coastal lowlands of central and eastern Panama, in northern South America in the Atlantic lowlands of Colombia and northern Venezuela, as well as in the Pacific lowlands of Ecuador. The type locality given is "les environs de Turbaco [Department de Bolívar], en Colombie ". According to Amaral (1929), the holotype is likely from Tumaco.
According to the range map provided by Campbell & Lamar (2004), the subspecies P. l. rozei and P. l. lansbergii intergrade in the northern part of the Guajira Peninsula.
Habitat The preferred natural habitat of P. lansbergii is forest, from sea level to .
Subspecies SubspeciesTaxon authorCommon nameGeographic rangeP. l. hutmanni(Sandner-Montilla, 1989)Endemic to Isla Margarita, Venezuela.P. l. lansbergii(Schlegel, 1841)Northern Colombia and Panama.P. l. rozei(J. Peters, 1968)Lansberg's gold hognosed pitviperVenezuela from the Lake Maracaibo region and along the coast as far east as Caripito Monagas. Also enters northeastern Colombia to the southwest of Lake Maracaibo.
Nota bene: A trinomial authority (taxon author) in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Porthidium.
Taxonomy Campbell & Lamar (2004) elevated P. arcosae (originally P. l. arcosae) to full species.
Reproduction P. lansbergii is viviparous. www.reptile-database.org.
References
Further reading Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), Amblycephalidæ, and Viperidæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Lachesis lansbergii, new combination, pp. 546–547). Peters JA (1968). "A replacement name for Bothrops lansbergii venezuelensis Roze, 1959 (Viperidae, Serpentes)". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 81: 319–322. (Bothrops lansbergii rozei, new name, pp. 3203–21). Sandner-Montilla F (1989). "Una nueva subespecie de Bothrops lansbergi (Schlegel, 1841) de la familia Crotalidae: Bothrops lansbergi hutmanni, n. ssp.". Memorias Científicas de Ofidiología 9: 1–16. (in Spanish). Schätti B, Kramer E (1993). "Ecuadorianische Grubenottern der Gattungen Bothriechis, Bothrops und Porthidium (Serpentes: Viperidae)". Revue suisse de Zoologie 100 (2): 235–278. (Porthidium lansbergii arcosae, new subspecies, pp. 264–266, Figure 4). (in German). Schlegel H (1841). "Description d'une nouvelle espèce du genre Trigonocéphale (T. Lansbergii) ". Magasin de Zoologie 3: 1-3. (Trigonocephalus lansbergii, new species). (in French).