Echis carinatus multisquamatus

Echis carinatus multisquamatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Viperidae
Subfamily:	Viperinae
Genus:	Echis
Species:	E. carinatus
Subspecies:	E. c. multisquamatus
Trinomial name
Echis carinatus multisquamatus Cherlin, 1981
Synonyms
Echis multisquamatus - Cherlin, 1981 Echis [(Turanechis)] multisquamatus - Cherlin, 1990 E[chis]. c[arinatus]. multisquamatus - Auffenberg & Rehman, 1991 Echis carinata multisquamatus - Das, 1996[1]

Common names: multiscale saw-scaled viper, transcaspian saw-scaled viper.^[2]

Echis carinatus multisquamatus is a venomous viper subspecies^[3] found in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Description

Grows to 38-80 cm in length, but usually no more than 60 cm.^[4]

Head mark always cross-shaped; lateral white line continuous undulating; narrow transverse white bands on middorsum; 34-40 midbody dorsal scale counts (highest of all subspecies); ventrals 169-199 (highest of all subspecies).^[2]

Geographic range

From Uzbekistan, south to Iran and east to western Pakistan.^[4]

The Wildlife of Pakistan website describes the range as from the Caspian Sea through Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent) into Tajikistan, along the Afghan border up to Hindukush, northeastern Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and eastern Iran.^[2]

The type locality is listed as "Bairam-Ali, Mariskaya oblast, Turkmeniya" (Bairam-Ali, Mariskaya district, Turkmenia).^[1]

Taxonomy

Classified as a separate species, E. multisquamatus, when first described by Cherlin (1981).^[1]

See also

• List of viperine species and subspecies
• Viperinae by common name
• Viperinae by taxonomic synonyms
• Snakebite

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
2. ^ ^{a b c} Saw-scaled Viper, ... at Wildlife of Pakistan, Accessed 3 August 2006.
3. ^ "Echis carinatus multisquamatus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=635289. Retrieved 1 August 2006. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. 2003. True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida. 359 pp. ISBN 0-89464-877-2.

External links

• Echis carinatus at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 24 November 2007.
• Echis multisquamatus Cherlin,1981 at Tomáš Mazuch. Accessed 24 November 2007.