Vipers

The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii and the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom. Four subfamilies are currently recognized.

All viperids have a pair of relatively long solenoglyphous (hollow) fangs that are used to inject venom from glands located towards the rear of the upper jaws. Each of the two fangs is at the front of the mouth on a short maxillary bone that can rotate back and forth. When not in use, the fangs fold back against the roof of the mouth and are enclosed in a membranous sheath. The left and right fangs can be rotated together or independently. During a strike, the mouth can open nearly 180° and the maxilla rotates forward, erecting the fangs as late as possible so as the fangs do not become damaged. The jaws close on impact and powerful muscles that surround the venom glands contract to inject the venom as the fangs penetrate. This action is very fast; in defensive strikes it can be more a stab than a bite. Viperids use this mechanism primarily for immobilization and digestion of prey. Secondarily it is used for self-defense, though in most cases with non-prey items such as humans they are more likely to give a dry bite (not inject any venom).

Vipers

• Fea's Viper - Azemiopinae (Liem, Marx & Rabb, 1971)
• Night Adders - Causinae (Cope, 1859)
  • Two-striped night adder - C. bilineatus (Boulenger, 1905)
  • Snouted night adder - C. defilippii (Jan, 1863)
  • Lichtenstein's night adder - C. lichtensteinii (Jan, 1859)
  • West African night adder - C. maculatus (Hallowell, 1842)
  • Green night adder - C. resimus (Peters, 1862)
  • Common night adder - C. rhombeatus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
• Pit Vipers - Crotalinae (Oppel, 1811)
• True Vipers - Viperinae (Oppel, 1811)
  • Uzungwe viper - Adenorhinos (Loveridge, 1930)
  • Bush vipers - Atheris (Cope, 1862)
    • A. anisolepis (Mocquard, 1887)
    • Horned bush viper - A. ceratophora (Werner, 1895)
    • Western bush viper - A. chlorechis (Pel, 1851)
    • Mount Kenya bush viper - A. desaixi (Ashe, 1968)
    • Spiny bush viper - A. hispida (Laurent, 1955)
    • Upemba bush viper - A. katangensis (Witte, 1953)
    • Mount Mabu forest viper - A. mabuensis (Branch & Bayliss, 2009)
    • Great Lakes bush viper - A. nitschei (Tornier, 1902)
    • Variable bush viper - A. squamigera (Hallowell, 1854)
  • Puff adders - Bitis (Gray, 1842)
    • Puff adder - B. arietans (Merrem, 1820)
    • Berg adder - B. atropos (Linnaeus, 1758)
    • Horned adder - B. caudalis (Smith, 1839)
    • Many-horned adder - B. cornuta (Daudin, 1803)
    • Gaboon viper - B. gabonica (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854)
    • Angolan adder - B. heraldica (Bocage, 1889)
    • Plain mountain adder - B. inornata (Smith, 1838)
    • Rhinoceros viper - B. nasicornis (Shaw, 1792)
    • Ethiopian mountain adder - B. parviocula (Böhme, 1977)
    • Peringuey's desert adder - B. peringueyi (Boulenger, 1888)
    • Red adder - B. rubida (Branch, 1997)
    • Namaqua dwarf adder - B. schneideri (Boettger, 1886)
    • Kenyan horned viper - B. worthingtoni (Parker, 1932)
    • Desert mountain adder - B. xeropaga (Haacke, 1975)
  • Horned vipers - Cerastes (Laurenti, 1768)
    • Saharan horned viper - C. cerastes (Linnaeus, 1758)
    • Arabian horned viper - C. gasperettii (Leviton & Anderson, 1967)
    • Sahara sand viper - C. vipera (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Russell's viper - Daboia (Gray, 1842)
  • Saw-scaled vipers - Echis (Merrem, 1820)
    • Saw-scaled viper - E. carinatus (Schneider, 1801)
      • Astola saw-scaled viper - E. c. astolae (Mertens, 1970)
      • South Indian saw-scaled viper - E. c. carinatus (Schneider, 1801)
      • Multiscale saw-scaled viper - E. c. multisquamatus (Cherlin, 1981)
      • Sri Lankan saw-scaled viper - E. c. sinhaleyus (Deraniyagala, 1951)
      • Sochurek's saw-scaled viper - E. c. sochureki (Stemmler, 1969)
    • Palestine saw-scaled viper - E. coloratus (Günther, 1878)
    • Hughes' saw-scaled viper - E. hughesi (Cherlin, 1990)
    • Joger's saw-scaled viper - E. jogeri (Cherlin, 1990)
    • White-bellied carpet viper - E. leucogaster (Roman, 1972)
    • Cherlin's saw-scaled viper - E. megalocephalus (Cherlin, 1990)
    • African saw-scaled viper - E. ocellatus (Stemmler, 1970)
    • Egyptian saw-scaled viper - E. pyramidum (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827)
      • Red carpet viper - E. p. aliaborri (Drews & Sacherer, 1974 )
      • Leakey's saw-scaled viper - E. p. leakeyi (Stemmler & Sockurek, 1969)
      • Egyptian saw-scaled viper - E. p. pyramidum (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827)
  • McMahon's viper - Eristicophis (Alcock and Finn, 1897)
  • Large Palearctic vipers - Macrovipera (Reuss, 1927)
    • Desert viper - M. deserti (Anderson, 1892)
    • Blunt-nosed viper - M. lebetina (Linnaeus, 1758)
      • M. l. cernovi (Chikin & Szczerbak, 1992)
      • Cyprian blunt-nosed viper - M. l. lebetina (Linnaeus, 1758)
      • Levant blunt-nosed viper - M. l. obtusa (Dwigubsky, 1832)
      • M. l. transmediterranea (Nilson & Andrén, 1988)
      • Turan blunt-nosed viper - M. l. turanica (Cernov, 1940)
    • Moorish viper - M. mauritanica (Duméril & Bibron, 1848)
    • Milos viper - M. schweizeri (Werner, 1935)
  • Kenya mountain viper - Montatheris (Boulenger, 1910)
  • Lowland viper - Proatheris (Peters, 1854)
  • False horned viper - Pseudocerastes (Boulenger, 1896)
  • Palearctic vipers - Vipera (Laurenti, 1768)
    • Iranian mountain viper - V. albicornuta (Nilson & Andrén, 1985)
    • Central Turkish mountain viper - V. albizona (Nilson, Andrén & Flärdh, 1990)
    • Horned viper - V. ammodytes (Linnaeus, 1758)
    • Asp viper - V. aspis (Linnaeus, 1758)
    • Baran's adder - V. barani (Böhme & Joger, 1984)
    • Common European adder - V. berus ((Linnaeus, 1758)
    • Bornmuellers viper - V. bornmuelleri (Werner, 1898)
    • Bulgardagh viper - V. bulgardaghica (Nilson & Andrén, 1985)
    • Darevsky's viper - V. darevskii (Vedmederja, Orlov & Tuniyev, 1986)
    • Dinnik's viper - V. dinniki (Nikolsky, 1913)
    • Caucasus viper - V. kaznakovi (Nikolsky, 1909)
    • Lataste's viper - V. latastei (Bosca, 1878)
    • Latifi's viper - V. latifii (Mertens, Darevsky & Klemmer, 1967)
    • Caucasian meadow viper - V. lotievi (Nilson et al., 1995)
    • Atlas mountain viper - V. monticola (Saint-Girons, 1954)
    • Nikolsky's viper - V. nikolskii (Vedmederja, Grubant & Rudajewa, 1986)
    • Palestine viper - V. palaestinae (Werner, 1938)
    • Pontic adder - V. pontica (Billing, Nilson & Sattler, 1990)
    • Rock viper - V. raddei (Boettger, 1890)
    • Baskian viper - V. seoanei (Lataste, 1879)
    • Meadow viper - V. ursinii ((Bonaparte, 1835)
    • Ocellated mountain viper - V. wagneri (Nilson & Andrén, 1984)
    • Rock viper - V. xanthina (Gray, 1849)

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