''Protobothrops cornutus'', commonly known as the horned pit viper or Fan-Si-Pan horned pitviper,Gumprecht A, Tillack F, Orlov NL, Captain A, Ryabov S. 2004. ''Asian Pitvipers''. GeitjeBooks. Berlin. 1st Edition. 368 pp. . is a

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a ...

pit viper

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

found in northern and central

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

and in southern China (

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

). No subspecies are currently recognized.

Geographic range

The

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

given is "Fan-si-pan mountains, Tonkin, Indo-China" (= Mount Fansipan). It is currently known from several provinces in Vietnam ( Lao Cai Province, Ha Giang Province, Quang Binh Province, Thua Thien-Hue Province,

Lang Son Province Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lang, ...

). The only Chinese record is from Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County in northern Guangdong and was originally described as a new species, ''Ceratrimeresurus shenlii''.

Habitat

It occurs in evergreen forest on both karst and granitic outcrops at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. The ...

Taxonomy

Herrmann et al. (2004) moved this species to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

''Protobothrops'' based on external and hemipenal morphology, as well as molecular data.

Geographic range

Habitat

Taxonomy

References

Further reading