Bothrops pulcher
species of reptile
Common names: Andean forest-pitviper.
Bothrops pulcher is a venomous pitviper species found in South America. The specific name is Latin, meaning "beautiful", in reference to the color pattern. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Description
A small and moderately slender species, only two lengths are given by Campbell and Lamar (2004): 76.4 cm for a specimen from Colombia and 65.9 cm for the type of Bothrops alticola, although the tail was incomplete.
The scalation includes 19-23 (usually 21) rows of keeled dorsal scales, 167-178/173-181 ventral scales in males/females and 63-64/53-60 subcaudal scales in males/females, with a varying number towards the end of the tail being divided. On the head there are 5-8 keeled intersupraocular scales, 7-9 (usually 7) supralabial scales, the second of which contacts the prelacunal, and 8-10 sublabial scales.
The color pattern consists of a greenish yellow or medium to dark green ground color that usually becomes more obscure towards the front of the body. The dorsal pattern is a series of 29 bands or transverse black spots that tend to fuse with each other towards the front part of the body. All of this is overlaid with a pattern of white dorsal keels.
The public source identifies “Bothrops pulcher” as species of reptile. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bothrops, pulcher and species.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bothrops pulcher”, the useful work is to connect “species of reptile” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2021. The linked authority identifier is Q2911680. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bothrops pulcher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.