ARUNACHAL PIT VIPER
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.
Vipers are venomous snakes that are found in almost all parts of the world. They are not found in Australia, Antarctica, Hawaii, New Zealand and Madagascar. They have a pair of long fangs that inject venom. These snakes are intelligent and have the capability to decide how much venom to inject based on the circumstances.
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.
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.
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.