Craspedocephalus macrolepis
species of reptile
Craspedocephalus macrolepis, commonly known as the large-scaled pit viper, is a venomous pitviper species endemic to the Southern Western Ghats of South India. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Geographic range
It is found in the mountains of southern Western Ghats south of Palakkad Gap, in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is a high-elevation specialist, not normally recorded anywhere below 1200 m asl. Precise records are from Nelliyampathy, Munnar, Anaimalai, Palni hills, Meghamalai, Periyar Tiger Reserve, Agasthyamalai and Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. at elevations of 1200-2695 m asl. The type locality is listed as "Anamalai hills (Tamil Nadu State, southwestern India)".
Description
Adults may attain a total length of 68 cm (27 in), which includes a tail 12 cm (4.7 in) long.
Dorsally, C. macrolepis is bright green, with blackish skin between the scales in some places. There is a yellow or white stripe on each side of the body, which runs along the first dorsal scale row.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Craspedocephalus macrolepis” is species of reptile. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Craspedocephalus, macrolepis and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q679436. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1200.
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This entry incorporates text from “Craspedocephalus macrolepis” 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.