EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Mamushi of the Far East

Mamushi (Gloydius [prev. in Agkistrodon] blomhoffi), Family Viperidae
Hassan Rion, Primorski Krai, Far East Russia

Explanation:  This week we are in extreme southeast Siberia, in the Russian Far East, where Siberian tigers roam the dense woods.  Here, basking on a rock is a venomous pit viper known as mamushi in Japanese.  

This pit viper -- note the typical triangular head -- lacks rattles such as found on western rattlesnakes.  It is more akin to copperheads, water moccasins, and cottonmouths of North America, and thus was previously included in their genus Agkistrodon, but has since been moved to the genus Gloydius.

This species occurs more commonly in Japan, China, and Korea, but is a rare denizen of Russia.  Some accounts do not even list Russia as part of its distribution, but here is evidence!  Its ecology is nearly unstudied. 

In some (older) accounts, this species is listed as Gloydius ussuriensis, or the Ussuri mamushi, ranging in the Russian Far East, northeast China, and Korea, particularly in the Ussuri River watershed and adjacent areas.  It also goes by a number of other scientific name synonyms ... and a confusing taxonomy!  
  

Beautiful but deadly.  Beware the hidden fangs
and the quick strike!

Acknowledgment
     This specimen was captured by the local Russian herpetologist Vasily Solkin, from the Elduga River watershed in southern Siberia.