About Bothrops punctatus (Garcia, 1896)
Adult Size
Adults of Bothrops punctatus commonly grow to over 100 cm in total length, and may exceed 150 cm.
Body Shape & Lifestyle
Its body shape and long tail indicate a semiarboreal lifestyle.
Head & Fang Morphology
The head is long and lance-shaped, and the species has exceptionally long fangs.
Dorsal & Ventral Scalation
Its scalation pattern follows this arrangement: 25 to 29 rows of dorsal scales; 186 to 211 ventral scales in males and 191 to 213 in females; 70 to 95 paired subcaudal scales in males and 80 to 90 paired subcaudal scales in females.
Tail Morphology
The tail ends in a long, rounded spine that may curve slightly upward at the tip.
Head Scalation
On the head, there are 6 to 9 intersupraocular scales, 7 to 9 supralabial scales (with the second supralabial in contact with the prelacunal), and 11 to 12 sublabial scales.
Base Color & Paravertebral Blotches
The species' color pattern features a pale brown to greenish tan base color, overlaid with 16 to 22 pairs of darker brown paravertebral blotches that have pale edges. Some of these paravertebral blotches merge along the dorsal midline.
Lateral Blotch Pattern
A row of lateral blotches is offset from the paravertebral blotches, creating a semi-banded appearance. Below this lateral row is a third series of dark blotches, alternating with lighter spots, that extends down onto the ventral scales.
Ventral Coloration
The belly is cream to pale tan with brown spots.
Cheek Stripe
A dark brown cheek stripe is present; this stripe is darkest along its outer edges, where it is narrowly bordered by a lighter color that can sometimes be orange or yellow.
Geographic Range
This species' geographic range extends from the Darién region of Panama, primarily through Chocó Department, along the Pacific slope of Colombia and Ecuador, to extreme northern Peru.
Type Locality
Its given type locality is "Las Montañas del Dagua", Colombia.
Habitat
It inhabits tropical moist forest, tropical wet forest, subtropical moist forest, subtropical wet forest, and montane wet forest.
