Suborder Serpentes Subfamily Viperinae Phylum Chordata Rank Subspecies | Subphylum Vertebrata Family Viperidae Genus Vipera Higher classification Vipera aspis Order Scaled reptiles | |
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Scientific name Vipera aspis francisciredi Similar Vipera aspis, Vipera, Snake, Reptile, Vipera aspis atra | ||
Vipera aspis francisciredi is a venomous viper subspecies endemic to northern and central Italy and adjacent Croatia, Slovenia, and Switzerland.
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Etymology
The subspecific name, francisciredi, is in honor of Francesco Redi, an Italian physician who was a pioneer in experimental toxinology.
Description
The head is distinctly swollen behind the eyes and upper lips; in adults, this feature is clearly visible when viewed from above.
Regarding the color pattern, many examples of this subspecies have a white or cream-colored spot near the outer edge of each ventral scale; these spots are smaller in V. a. aspis (if at all present), but much more apparent in V. a. francisciredi.
Geographic range
Street (1979) describes this subspecies as inhabiting most of Italy, where it is the most common and widely distributed venomous snake. It also occurs in the Swiss canton of Ticino, south of the Monte Ceneri Pass, but is not found west of nearby Lake Maggiore. Also in the north, in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, it can be found as far north as Meran, but is not found in Austria, and as far east as Gorizia (on the border with Slovenia). In the south of Italy, it is absent from Basilicata and Calabria.
In the former Yugoslavia, it is a rare inhabitant of the Julian Alps (Pozzi, 1966). There have been reports of specimens from Ripanj near Belgrade, Jahorin in Bosnia and other parts of "Yugoslavia", but some of these may have been confused with V. berus bosniensis. Nevertheless, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) describes the range of this subspecies as stretching from southern Switzerland, northern and central Italy, to Slovenia and northwestern Croatia.
The type locality listed by Laurenti (1768) for Vipera Francisci Redi (= V. a. francisciredi) is "Austriaco & Italico" (= Austria and Italy).
Conservation status
This subspecies is classified as Endangered (EN) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (v3.1, 2001).