Protobothrops cornutus

Protobothrops cornutus, commonly known as the horned pit viper or Fan-Si-Pan horned pit viper, is a pit viper species found in northern and central Vietnam and in southern China. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Description

Its maximum length is usually around 60-90cm. It has a long body, with a flat oblong trangular head differentiated from the body, with small scales. Its nostril scale is also triangular.
It was found to exhibit the largest attack acceleration among snakes, about 18g.

Geographic range

The type locality given is "Fan-si-pan mountains, Tonkin, Indo-China". It is currently known from several provinces in Vietnam. The only Chinese record is from Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County in northern Guangdong and was originally described as a new species, Ceratrimeresurus shenlii.

Habitat

It occurs in evergreen forest on both karst and granitic outcrops at elevations of above sea level.

Taxonomy

Herrmann et al. moved this species to the genus Protobothrops based on external and hemipenal morphology, as well as molecular data.