Common names: Neuwied's lancehead, jararaca pintada.

Bothrops neuwiedi is a venomous

Venomous snake

"Poisonous snake" redirects here. For true poisonous snakes, see Rhabdophis.Venomous snakes are snakes which have venom glands and specialized teeth for the injection of venom...

 pitviper

Crotalinae

The Crotalinae, commonly known as "pit vipers" or crotaline snakes, are a subfamily of venomous vipers found in Asia and the Americas. They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on either side of the head...

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 found in South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. This relatively small snake has a wide range and is a major source of snakebite in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It was named after German naturalist Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied

Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied

Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied was a German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist....

 (1782-1867) who made important collections in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 (1815-1817). Twelve subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.

Description

Adults average 60-70 cm in length, but may grow to as much as 100 cm.

Head scalation includes 7-11 keeled

Keeled scales

Keeled scales refer to reptile scales that, rather than being smooth, have a ridge down the center that may or may not extend to the tip of the scale, making them rough to the touch...

 intrasupraoculars

Interorbital scales

In snakes, the interorbital scales, or intersupraoculars, are the scales on the top of the head between the plates surmounting the eyes ....

 (rarely 12 or as few as 5), 9-13 sublabials

Sublabial scales

In reptiles, the sublabial scales, also called lower-labials or infralabials, are those scales that border the mouth opening along the lower jaw. They do not include the median scale . The term labial originates from Labium , which refers to any lip-like structure...

 (usually 10-11) and 7-8 supralabials

Supralabial scales

In reptiles, the supralabial scales, also called upper-labials, are those scales that border the mouth opening along the upper jaw. They do not include the median scale . The term labial originates from Labium , which refers to any lip-like structure...

 (rarely 7 or 10), the second of which is not fused with and usually separated from the prelacunal. Two rows of small scales usually separate the subocular

Ocular scales

In scaled reptiles, the ocular scales are those forming the margin of the eye. The name originates from the term oculus which is Latin for "eye" and, in the broadest sense, refers to a scale associated with the eye...

 and fourth supralabial. At midbody there are 22-29 (usually 25-27) rows of dorsal scales that are strongly keeled. The ventral scales

Ventral scales

In snakes, the ventral scales are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that contacts the paraventral row of dorsal scales on either side...

 number 158-179/164-185 in males/females, while the subcaudal scales

Subcaudal scales

In snakes, the subcaudal scales are the enlarged plates on the underside of the tail. These scales may be either single or divided and are preceded by the anal scale....

 are divided and number 39-56/34-51 in males/females.

The color pattern consists of a brown or dark-brown ground color overlaid with a series of 16-27 dark brown or black dorsolateral blotches. The blotches are edged in white and may be trapezoidal, triangular, subtriangular, or headphone-shaped and oppose each other middorsally. The belly is white or yellow with gray speckling. Juveniles have a white tail tip.

Geographic range

Found in South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 east of the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 and south of approx. 5° south, including Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 (southern Maranhão

Maranhão

Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...

, Piauí

Piauí

Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...

, Ceará

Ceará

Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...

, Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

, Goiás

Goiás

Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...

, Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest in area, located in the western part of the country.Neighboring states are Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest...

, an isolated population in Amazonas, Rondônia

Rondônia

Rondônia is a state in Brazil, located in the north-western part of the country. To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, and in the south is Bolivia. Its capital is Porto Velho. The state was named after Candido Rondon...

 and all southern states), Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 (Catamarca

Catamarca Province

Catamarca is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province has a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km². Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are : Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, and La Rioja...

, Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

, Corrientes

Corrientes Province

Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...

, Chaco

Chaco Province

Chaco is an Argentine province located in the north of the country, near the border with Paraguay. Its capital is Resistencia on the Paraná River opposite the city of Corrientes...

, Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

, Formosa

Formosa Province

Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively...

, Jujuy

Jujuy Province

Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...

, La Pampa

La Pampa Province

La Pampa is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.-History:...

, La Rioja

La Rioja Province (Argentina)

La Rioja is a one of the provinces of Argentina and is located in the west of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Catamarca, Córdoba, San Luis and San Juan.-History:...

, Mendoza

Mendoza Province

The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...

, Misiones

Misiones Province

Misiones is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamiсa region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes Province of Argentina to the southwest.- History :The province was...

, Salta

Salta Province

Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy...

, San Juan

San Juan Province (Argentina)

San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile at the west....

, San Luis

San Luis Province

San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...

, Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

, Santiago del Estero

Santiago del Estero Province

Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:...

 and Tucumán

Tucumán Province

Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...

) and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

. According to Vanzolini (1981), the type locality given is "provincia Bahiae" (Bahia province, Brazil).

Habitat

It inhabits tropical and semitropical deciduous forest, as well as temperate forest and Atlantic Coast restingas

Atlantic Coast restingas

Atlantic Coast restingas are an ecoregion of Brazil, part of the Atlantic Forest region. Restingas are coastal forests which form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium sized trees and shrubs adapted to the dry and nutrient-poor conditions found...

, and is associated with dry or semiarid rocky areas in almost all cases.

Venom

It is one of the main causes of snakebite in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

: between 1960 and 1975, according to Esteso (1985), 80% of the approximately 500 cases reported each year were attributed to B. n. diporus.

In a review of the symptoms in all 18 bite cases for this species admitted to the hospital in São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

 between 1975 and 1992, Jorge and Ribeiro (2000) found that all suffered pain, 83% had swelling

Swelling (medical)

In medical parlance, swelling is the transient enlargement or protuberance in the body and may include tumors. According to cause, it may be congenital, traumatic, inflammatory, neoplastic or miscellaneous....

, 50% had bruising

Bruise

A bruise, also called a contusion, is a type of relatively minor hematoma of tissue in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Bruises can involve capillaries at the level of skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle,...

, 17% had necrosis

Necrosis

Necrosis is the premature death of cells in living tissue. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma. This is in contrast to apoptosis, which is a naturally occurring cause of cellular death...

, 12% developed coagulopathy

Coagulopathy

Coagulopathy is a condition in which the blood’s ability to clot is impaired. This condition can cause prolonged or excessive bleeding, which may occur spontaneously or following an injury or medical and dental procedures.The normal clotting process depends on the interplay of various proteins in...

 and 5% had abscess

Abscess

An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue in which the pus resides due to an infectious process or other foreign materials...

es. In a case in Germany, a 36-year-old snake keeper was bitten on the finger and developed hemorrhagic "necrosis" of the afflicted digit and swelling that extended onto the hand. Five hours post-bite, his blood had a normal platelet count, but was incoagulable with a reduced fibrin

Fibrin

Fibrin is a fibrous, non-globular protein involved in the clotting of blood. It is a fibrillar protein that is polymerised to form a "mesh" that forms a hemostatic plug or clot over a wound site....

ogen concentration, elevated fibrin degradation products and D-dimer

D-dimer

D-dimer is a fibrin degradation product , a small protein fragment present in the blood after a blood clot is degraded by fibrinolysis. It is so named because it contains two crosslinked D fragments of the fibrinogen protein....

.

Three different antivenin

Antivenin

Antivenom is a biological product used in the treatment of venomous bites or stings. Antivenom is created by milking venom from the desired snake, spider or insect. The venom is then diluted and injected into a horse, sheep or goat...

s, Soro Antibotropico-Crotalico, Soro Antibotropico-Laquetico and Soro Botropico, can be used to treat bites from this species. All three are manufactured by the Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan is a Brazilian biomedical research center affiliated to the São Paulo State Secretary of Health. It is located near the campus of the University of São Paulo, in the city of the same name.-History:...

 in Brazil and contain specific antibodies

Antibody

An antibody, also known as an immunoglobulin, is a large Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique part of the foreign target, termed an antigen...

 to counteract the effects of the venom.

Subspecies

Subspecies	Taxon author	Common name	Geographic range
B. n. bolivianus	Amaral, 1927
B. n. diporus	Cope Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen... , 1862	Chaco lancehead
B. n. goyazensis	Amaral, 1925
B. n. lutzi	(Miranda-Ribeiro, 1915)	Cerrado lancehead
B. n. mattogrossensis	Amaral, 1925	Mato Grosso lancehead
B. n. meridionalis	Müller Fritz Müller (doctor) Fritz Müller was a Swiss doctor, zoologist, and herpetologist.He was born in Basel and studied at the University of Basel from 1852 to 1854, and then at Würzburg and Prague, where he became a medical doctor in 1857... , 1885
B. n. neuwiedi	Wagler Johann Georg Wagler Johann Georg Wagler was a German herpetologist.Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and became Director of the Zoological Museum at the University of Munich after Spix's death in 1826... , 1824	Neuwied's lancehead
B. n. paramanensis	Amaral, 1925
B. n. pauloensis	Amaral, 1925	Black-faced lancehead
B. n. piauhyensis	Amaral, 1925
B. n. pubescens	(Cope, 1870)	Pampas lancehead
B. n. urutu	Orejas-Miranda, 1970

Taxonomy

The twelve subspecies listed above were recognized by Peters and Orejas-Miranda (1970), Campbell and Lamar (1989) and Golay et al. (1993). A revision by Silva (2000) evelated seven taxa to full species: B. neuwiedi, B. diporus, B. lutzi, B. mattogrossensis, B. pauloensis, B. pubescens and one unnamed new species. In some cases, intergradation

Intergradation

In zoology, intergradation is the way in which two distinct subspecies are connected via areas where populations are found that have the characteristics of both...

may occur. Together, these are referred to as the Bothrops neuwiedi complex.