The Far East 



snakes, commonly with dull patterns of brown blotches ; 



3. Small, moderately lonn-bodied arboreal snakes with 

 prehensile tail, body coloration tending toward unicolor 

 greens, light browns, or light speckles. 



Definition: Head broad, flattened, very distinct from 

 narrow neck; canthus obtuse to sharp. Body cylindrical 

 to moderately compressed, moderately slender to stout; 

 tail short to moderately long. 



Eyes small to moderate in size ; pupils vertically el- 

 liptical. 



Head scales : Supraoculars present, a pair of inter- 

 nasals often present ; remainder of crown covered with 

 small scales. Laterally, a nasal jiore in i)renasal. 2 

 enlarged preoculars, eye separated from sui>ralabials by 

 1-4 rows of small scales. 



FiGTRE !)7. — Okinawa Habn. Triiiicrcxiinix flaroiiiiilix. 

 I'hoto by Robert E. Kuntz. (See also plate IV, figure .5.) 



Figure 96. — Head Scale.s of the Okinawa Habu, Trimc- 

 resuru.1 flavoriridis. Note absence of most crown 

 scutes, characteristic of this genus. Redrawn from 

 Maki, 1931. 



Body scales : Dorsals feebly to .strongly keeled, in 

 13-37 nonoblique rows. Ventrals 12I>-231 ; subcaudals 

 paired, 2l-i)2. 



Okinawa Habu, T rimcresui'us jiavovb'idi^ (Hal- 

 lowell). 



Iilciitificatidii: One of the Asian lance-headed pit 

 vipers; bead large, crown with small scales; body slen- 

 der, gracefully proportioned, tail not prehensile. Scales 

 around midbody .'W-37 ; ventrals 222-231. 



Ground color light olive or brown with elongated dark 

 green or brownish blotches edged with yellow and some- 

 times enclosing yellow spots ; the blotches often fuse 

 to produce wavy stripes; underside whitish with dark 

 mottling along the edges. 



Average length -i to ."> feet ; maximum TVS feet ; it is the 

 largest of the Asian lance-heads. 



Distrihiitioii: Restricted to the Amami and Okinawa 

 island.s where it is common on the larger islands of vol- 

 canic origin, but is never seen on the smaller coral 

 islands. It is most frefpientl.y found in the transition 

 zone between cultivated fields and palm forest, living 

 in rock walls, old tombs, and caves. 



Ilcmarks: An a<tive, mostly nocturnal snake that 



frecpiently enters dwellings and other man-made struc- 

 tures probably in search of rats and mice. It is a l)old 

 and irritable reptile striking with great rapidity and 

 long reach. In the Amami islands the incidence of 

 snakebite is very high — about 2 i>er l.tKX) ]H>imlation. 

 Fortunately, habu venom is of low toxicity and only 

 .iliout 3 percent of the bites are fatal ; however, another G 

 to K jiercent have permanent disability as a result of the 

 bite. 



Antivenin against T. flavoviridis venom is produced by 

 I be Institute for Me<lical Science. Tokyo, and the 

 Laboratory for Chemotherapy and Serum Therapy, Ku- 

 mamoto, .lapan. 



The habu is one of the comparalively few pit vipers 

 that lays eggs. 



The hiniehabu {Tiiwcrcxiinis iil;iiiiiitiisis) has much 

 the same distribution as the habu but is a smaller, 

 heavier snake. It is sluggish and rarely causes snake- 

 bite. The Sakishimn habu (T. clcgans) (plate IV, fig. 

 6) is a smaller version of the Okinawa habn and occurs 

 in the southern Rytikyus. It has 182-191 ventrals and 

 6f>-77 subcaudals. 



Figure 98. — Himehabu, Trimcnxunm okinavensis. 

 I'hoto by Robert E. Kuntz. (See al.-;<) plate IV, figure 6.) 



Chinese Habu, Trimerenuru/t mucrosquamatus 

 (Cantor). 



Idcntificutiuii: Very similar to the habus of tlie 

 Ryukyus; has 198-219 ventrals and 76-96 subcaudals; 

 23-27 .scale rows at midbody. 



Grayi.sh brown to buff or olive; three rows of darker 

 gray or brown spots with narrow yellow edges; those of 

 middle row largest, occasionally fused to form a broken 



137 



