Carpet vipers occupy a wide area from the northwestern 

 coast of Africa to the delta of the Ganges and from the Aral 

 Sea to the equator In Kenya. A large number of taxa has been 

 described, but due to the absence of a general treatment It 

 has until now been impossible to correctly evaluate their 

 status (Hughes 1976, Boehme 1978) 



In addition to its theoretical interest, the problems of 

 carpet viper taxonomy are also of considerable practical 

 interest. Carpet vipers possess virulent venoms dangerous to 

 human beings (Deoras & Vad 1965-1966, Hughes 1976, and 

 others). From the experience of medical establishments, 

 anti-venom sera appear effective only when treating snake 

 bites of those taxonomic groups from whose venoms a serum has 

 been prepared, otherwise the consequences of the bites are 

 likely fatal. For instance, sera prepared in Africa have no 

 therapeutic effect when applied in Iran and, in Nigeria, 

 mortality of people during treatment with sera manufactured 

 in Teheran or Paris is nearly 20%. 



All this compelled me to undertake a comprehensive study 

 of snakes of the genus Echi s in order to develop a more 

 natural classification. 



In 1801, Schneider described the snake Pseudoboa 

 carina ta from Ami near Madras, India (Schneider 1807), now 

 known as Echis carinatus. In 1827, Geoffrey Saint Hilaire 

 distinguished Scy tale pyramidium , now called E^. £. pyramidum , 

 from the territory of Egypt (Geoffrey Saint Hilaire 1827). 

 In 1878, Gunther described _E_. arenicola (now _E_. coloratus) 

 from Arabia (Gunther 1878). In 1949, Constable referred 

 snakes from northern India to _E_. _c_. pyramid urn (Constable 

 1949). In 1951, Deraniyagala described _E_. _c_. sinhalensis 

 from Ceylon (Deraniyagala 1951). S. A. Chernov noted that 

 vipers from central Asia and Iran are different from the 

 vipers of Egypt but he did not have adequate samples of these 

 snakes from Africa in order to reach definitive conclusions 

 (Chernov 1930). From 1969 onwards, a number of articles 

 devoted to the taxonomy of vipers appeared, Stemmler and 

 Sochurek distinguished _E_. _c_. leakeyi from Lake Daringo in 

 Africa *(Stemmler and Sochurek 1969), while Stemmler 

 described _E_. _c_. sochureki from northern India, Pakistan, 

 Iran, Afghanistan and central Asia (Stemmler 1969). In 1970, 

 Mertens described _E_. c. as toles from the Astole Island in 

 Pakistan (Mertens 19707. In the same year, Stemmler also 

 described _E_. _c_. ocellatus from the "northern coast of the 

 Gulf of Guinea" **(Stemmler 1970). Then in 1972, Roman 



* Cherlin says wrongly Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana) - B.H. 

 ** The type is actually from Garange, Opper Volta - B.H. 



