Trimeresurus mcgregori

Trimeresurus mcgregori, commonly known as McGregor's pit viper^[4] or the Batanes pit viper, is a species of venomous snake in the subfamily Crotalinae of the family Viperidae.^[5][4] The species is endemic to the Philippines.

Trimeresurus mcgregori
Captive-bred adult female
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Viperidae
Genus:	Trimeresurus
Species:	T. mcgregori
Binomial name
Trimeresurus mcgregori Taylor, 1919
Synonyms
Trimeresurus mcgregori Taylor, 1919 Trimeresurus flavomaculatus mcgregori — Leviton, 1961[2] Trimeresurus mcgregori — Gumprecht, 2001 Parias flavomaculatus mcgregori — Malhotra & Thorpe, 2004 Trimeresurus mcgregori — Mattison, 2007 Parias mcgregori — Orlov et al., 2009 Trimeresurus (Parias) mcgregori — David et al., 2011[3]

Etymology

The specific name, mcgregori, is in honor of Australian-American ornithologist Richard Crittenden McGregor (1871–1936), who collected the type specimen,^[6] and survived its bite.^[7]

Description

The scalation of T. mcgregori includes 21 (23) rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 170-172/173-178 (or 169-172/168-178) ventral scales in males/females, 62-66/58-60 (or 63-69/56-62) subcaudal scales in males/females, and 10–11 supralabial scales.^[4]

Geographic range

T. mcgregori is found in the Philippines on the Batanes Islands. The type locality given is "Batan Island, Batanes Group, (lying between Luzon and Formosa)" (Philippine Islands).^[2]

Habitat

The preferred natural habitats of T. mcgregori are forest and shrubland, at altitudes from sea level to 800 m (2,600 ft), but it has also been found in agricultural areas.^[1]

Taxonomy

T. mcgregori was originally described as a new species by E.H. Taylor in 1919.^[8] It was considered to be a subspecies of T. flavomaculatus by Alan E. Leviton (1961).^[2] It was re-elevated to a full species by Andreas Gumprecht (2001, 2002).^[4]