Lebanon viper


The Lebanon viper is a venomous viper species found in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Syria. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Etymology

The specific name, bornmuelleri, is in honor of German botanist Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller.

Description

Montivipera bornmuelleri grows to a maximum total length of about, but usually much less. Males tend to be larger than females in some populations. In specimens from Mt. Lebanon, the maximum total lengths were for females and for males. The tail accounts for about 7–10% of the total length.

Geographic range and habitat

Montivipera bornmuelleri is found in high mountain areas in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.

Taxonomy

The original syntypes of M. bornmuelleri were collected in Lebanon at 1800 m and in the Bolkar mountains of western Turkey at 2200 m as described by Franz Werner in 1898. In 1922, Werner restricted the type locality to Lebanon in his designation of his specimen as a lectotype, and in 1938 separated out the southern varieties as a separate species. In 1967 Mertens raised the name bornmuelleri to valid species rank for the Lebanese populations, thus leaving the name xanthina for all Turkish populations, which arrangement was accepted by :tr:İbrahim Baran|Baran in 1976, and agreed with by Nilson and :de:Claes Andrén|Andrén in their 1985 paper.

Conservation status

The species M. bornmuelleri is as of 2006 classified as Endangered according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with the following criteria: B1ab. This indicates that it is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild because the extent of its occurrence within its geographic range is estimated to be less than 5,000 km², because its populations are severely fragmented or known to exist at no more than 5 locations, and because a continued decline is observed, inferred or projected in the area, extent and/or quality of its habitat.