Trimeresurus ayerwadyensis

Trimeresurus ayerwadyensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Viperidae
Genus:	Trimeresurus
Species:	T. ayerwadyensis
Binomial name
Trimeresurus ayerwadyensis Kin Onn Chan, S. Anuar, A. Sankar, I. T. Law, I. S. Law, R. Shivaram, C. Christian, D. G. Mulcahy, and A. Malhotra, 2023

Trimeresurus ayerwadyensis, also known commonly as the Ayerwady green pit viper or Southern Myanmar green pit viper, is a species of snake.

Description

In terms of color pattern, Trimeresurus ayeyarwadyensis sp. nov. shares characteristics with both T. purpureomaculatus and T. erythrurus. For example, specimen CAS 213410 from Yangon is bright green with no dorsal markings (Fig. 4A) and is virtually identical to T. erythrurus (Fig. 4B). A photograph of an unvouchered live specimen from Yangon corroborates this observation (Fig. 5). Contrastingly, CAS 219764 from Pyapon District in the Ayeyarwady Region has a dark or olive-green base dorsal coloration with distinct dark blotches (Fig. 4C) reminiscent of T. purpureomaculatus—albeit T. purpureomaculatus does not have a green base dorsal coloration (Chan et al. 2022). On the other hand, CAS 212245 from Myaungmya District in the Ayeyarwady Region appears to be an intermediate of the other two specimens in having a dark or olive-green base dorsal coloration with no distinct blotches (Fig. 4D). Despite these variations, all three specimens were unambiguously shown to represent a distinct, monophyletic lineage that is not conspecific with either T. purpureomaculatus or T. erythrurus (Chan et al. 2023). The distinct evolutionary trajectory of the new species coupled with the lack of morphological differentiation makes T. ayeyarwadyensis sp. nov. an archetypal example of a true cryptic species. ^[1]

Distribution and habitat

Trimeresurus ayeyarwadyensis sp. nov. occurs at Hlawga Park in the Yangon Region and Pyapon and Myaungmya districts in the Ayeyarwady Region. The northern and western limits of its distribution likely lie somewhere in between the Myaugmya and Pathein districts in the Ayeyarwady Region. Southward, it could occur in mangroves in Mon State. ^[2]

Behavior

The behavior of Trimeresurus ayerwadyensis is unknown.

References

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

1. Chan, Kin Onn; Anuar, Shahrul; Sankar, Ananthanarayanan; Law, Ingg Thong; Law, Ing Sind; Shivaram, Rasu; Christian, Ching; Mulcahy, Daniel G.; Malhotra, Anita (13 December 2023). "A new species of pit-viper from the Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions in Myanmar (Viperidae, Trimeresurus)". ZooKeys (1186): 221–234. Bibcode:2023ZooK.1186..221C. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1186.110422 . ISSN   1313-2970. PMC   10836646 . PMID   38312859.
2. Pskhun (14 December 2023). "Species New to Science: [Herpetology • 2023] Trimeresurus ayeyarwadyensis • A New Species of Pit-viper (Serpentes: Viperidae) from the Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions in Myanmar". Species New to Science. Retrieved 29 October 2025.