Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus can be found in South­east­ern China in the provinces of An­hwei, Chekiang, Fukien, Hunan, Hupeh, Kiangsi, Kwangsi, Kwang­tung, Kwe­i­chow, ex­treme south­east­ern Szech­wan, and pos­si­bly Yun­nan. This species also oc­curs in north­ern Viet­nam, and cen­tral and south­ern Tai­wan. (Gloyd, 1990; Zhao and Adler, 1993)

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Sharp-nosed pit vipers pre­fer moist, shaded habi­tats usu­ally in mon­tane forests and foothills under 1200 m but have been doc­u­mented at el­e­va­tions of up to 1400 m. They occur among rocks, in veg­e­ta­tion along val­ley streams, and near farm houses where they have been known to hide in dark places in search for ro­dents. (Gloyd, 1990)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• mountains

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  200 to 1400 m

  656.17 to 4593.18 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus adults range in length from 910 to 1210 mm, with the largest spec­i­men on record mea­sur­ing 1545 mm. Al­though D. acu­tus is a rel­a­tively large and stout-bod­ied snake, it is rel­a­tively smaller than many of the species the genus Agk­istrodon. They pos­sess a pro­tu­ber­ant, up­turned snout. Pit-vipers bear a pit on each side of the face, be­tween the nos­tril and the eye, which con­tains a tem­per­a­ture sen­si­tive pit organ. The pit organ al­lows an­i­mals to sense ther­mal ra­di­a­tion at spe­cific wave­lengths and may also be used in ther­moreg­u­la­tion and preda­tor avoid­ance. Each side of the body is pat­terned with a promi­nent se­ries of 15 to 23 pairs of large dark tri­an­gles, with a base color of gray or brown. The ven­ter is whitish and speck­led with con­spic­u­ous gray and black spots that vary in size and shape. Adults have darker col­oration than ju­ve­niles, which have yel­low­ish tails until adult­hood. Adult col­oration bears a strik­ing re­sem­blance to that of south­ern cop­per-heads found in the United States. Its up­turned snout, dark tri­an­gu­lar body pat­tern­ing and strongly tu­ber­cu­late-keeled scales are rel­a­tively unique char­ac­ter­is­tics that help dis­tin­guish it from sim­i­lar species. Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is sex­u­ally di­mor­phic, as males have longer tails and fe­males have longer body lengths. (Bar­rett, 1970; Gloyd, 1990)

• Other Physical Features
• heterothermic
• venomous

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range length

  1545 (high) mm

  60.83 (high) in

• Average length

  910 to 1210 mm

  in

De­vel­op­ment

Op­ti­mal tem­per­a­ture for hatch­ing in Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus ranges from 22.6 C to 36.5 C, with an av­er­age of 27.6 C. Hatch­lings mea­sure about 21 cm in length. First molt tends to occur ten days after hatch­ing. The num­ber of molts per year is usu­ally be­tween three and four, but can be as many as five de­pend­ing upon en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions and food avail­abil­ity. (Gloyd, 1990)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is polyg­y­nan­drous. Males chase fe­males dur­ing courtship and use ol­fac­tion to in­ves­ti­gate var­i­ous parts of the fe­male's body. Once a male has se­cured his mate and their heads are aligned, their tails being to wrap around each other and vi­brate con­tin­u­ously. Mat­ing in D. acu­tus can last from 2 to 6 hours. (Gloyd, 1990)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able con­cern­ing the mat­ing be­hav­ior of Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus. Mat­ing has been ob­served from March through May and again from Sep­tem­ber through No­vem­ber. Ges­ta­tion length ranges from 20 to 35 days. Most fe­males are re­pro­duc­tively ma­ture by 36 months of age, and clutch sizes range from 5 to 32 eggs, with an av­er­age of 20. Hatch­lings range in mass from 6 to 14.5 grams. (Gloyd, 1990; Lin, et al., 2005; Zhao and Adler, 1993)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• sexual
• fertilization
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Deinagkistrodon acutus breeds twice yearly.

• Breeding season

  Deinagkistrodon acutus breeds from March through May and again from September through December.

• Range number of offspring

  5 to 32

• Average number of offspring

  20

• Range gestation period

  20 to 35 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  36 months

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is oviparous and lays about 20 eggs at a time. Dur­ing in­cu­ba­tion, moth­ers coil them­selves around their eggs for ap­prox­i­mately 20 days, after which hatch­lings emerge and are com­pletely in­de­pen­dent of parental care. (Gloyd, 1990)

• Parental Investment
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the av­er­age lifes­pan of Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus. In the wild, max­i­mum lifes­pan has been es­ti­mated at 20 years, and the old­est known cap­tive in­di­vid­ual lived for 16 years and 3 months. (Gloyd, 1990)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  16 years and 3 months (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  20 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the gen­eral be­hav­ior of Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus. It is a seden­tary snake, but it is eas­ily an­noyed and may at­tack with­out warn­ing when alarmed or pro­voked. Dur­ing win­ter, it oc­cu­pies aban­doned small-mam­mal bor­rows, from 300 m and above, that are dry, shel­tered from wind, ex­posed to the sun, and with water sources nearby. It avoids high lev­els of light, ex­cept when bask­ing in cool weather. Higher rates of ac­tiv­ity are cor­re­lated with cloudy and rainy weather, ex­cept dur­ing the ty­phoon sea­son when rates of ac­tiv­ity are dras­ti­cally re­duced. In gen­eral, this species is most ac­tive be­tween 10 C and 32 C, with an op­ti­mal ther­mal range of 17 C to 30 C. << Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus>> is a noc­tur­nal or cre­pus­cu­lar snake. It is con­sid­ered an am­bush preda­tor and en­ven­o­mates their prey in order to im­mo­bi­lize it. Cap­tive in­di­vid­u­als have been ob­served to re­main coiled dur­ing the day, with their heads near the cen­ter of the coil. (Gloyd, 1990; Greene, et al., 1988)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• sedentary
• territorial

Home Range

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the home range of Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Pit or­gans, which are found in all pit vipers, help Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus de­tect spe­cific wave­lengths of in­frared heat emit­ted by prey and po­ten­tial preda­tors. Pit or­gans are also thought to help in ther­moreg­u­la­tion. Fibers in­ner­vat­ing pit-or­gan re­cep­tors are com­pletely in­sen­si­tive to tac­tile stim­uli but vi­sual and in­frared stim­uli allow the snake to lo­cate en­dother­mic prey such as small ro­dents, es­pe­cially in the dark. Like many other snakes and lizards, the tongue of D. acu­tus is used for ol­fac­tory per­cep­tion. Vomeronasal func­tion­ing is es­sen­tial for the ini­ti­a­tion of male courtship of re­pro­duc­tively ac­tive fe­males dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. (Bar­rett, 1970; Mason and Halpern, 1992; Mole­naar, 1992)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones
• vibrations

• Perception Channels
• visual
• infrared/heat
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is car­niv­o­rous. Their gen­eral diet con­sists of birds, ro­dents, lizards, frogs and toads. After large meals, snakes may re­main mo­tion­less for days. (Gloyd, 1990; Greene, et al., 1988)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles

Pre­da­tion

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus has no known preda­tors. How­ever, it is vul­ner­a­ble to at­tack by con­specifics and ophio­phagous (i.e., canna­bal­is­tic) snakes. Anti-preda­tor adap­ta­tions in­clude cloa­cal dis­charge where the con­tents of the cloaca are ex­pelled in a fine stream or spray, some­times ejected a con­sid­er­able dis­tance. In ad­di­tion, pit-vipers as­sume a "body bridge" po­si­tion in which a por­tion of the body is raised in the di­rec­tion of a preda­tor. This species' quick-strike ca­pa­bil­i­ties and ven­omous bite likely deter po­ten­tial preda­tors and re­duce pre­da­tion risk. (Gloyd, 1990; Greene, et al., 1988)

• Known Predators

  • Deinagkistrodon acutus

Ecosys­tem Roles

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus preys upon small an­i­mals such as birds, ro­dents, lizards, frogs and toads. As a re­sult, it may help con­trol cer­tain agri­cul­tural pest species (e.g., small ro­dents) through­out its ge­o­graphic range. Known par­a­sites of this species in­clude pen­tas­to­mid en­dopar­a­sites and one species of spiny-headed worm. (Gloyd, 1990)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

D. acu­tus has both com­mer­cial and med­i­c­i­nal im­por­tance in China. Its venom has been used for cen­turies as a tra­di­tional rem­edy for rheuma­tiod arthri­tis and pain in ten­dons and bones. More re­cently, the venom's an­ti­co­ag­u­la­tion at­trib­utes have been in­cor­po­rated in he­mo­sta­tic and throm­bolytic drugs, which are widely used to pre­vent harm­ful blood clot­ting in stroke vic­tims. (Gloyd, 1990)

• Positive Impacts
• source of medicine or drug

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is known for en­ter­ing homes in search of food and its bite is lethal to hu­mans. (Zhao and Adler, 1993)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • bites or stings
  • venomous
• household pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Al­though Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is not listed on the IUCN's Red List of Threat­ened Species, China has listed this species as "vul­ner­a­ble". Many pop­u­la­tions through­out China have de­clined due to over-ex­ploita­tion and habi­tat de­struc­tion. As a re­sult, China began a cap­tive breed­ing pro­gram that, so far, has been suc­cess­ful in de­creas­ing com­mer­cial ex­ploita­tion of wild pop­u­la­tions. (Huang, et al., 2007)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Com­mon names for Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus in­clude Chi­nese moc­casin, hun­dred-pacer, sharp-nosed viper, and snorkel viper. The venom of D. acu­tus con­tains a po­tent neu­ro­toxin that is po­ten­tially lethal to hu­mans. Its large, hinged fangs allow for ef­fec­tive de­liv­ery of large quan­ti­ties of venom. Im­me­di­ate bite symp­toms in­clude se­vere lo­cal­ized pain and bleed­ing. Sev­eral pro­teases in the venom are re­spon­si­ble for local tis­sue dam­age and im­me­di­ate he­m­or­rhagic symp­toms. These symp­toms are fol­lowed by swelling, blis­ter­ing, necro­sis, and ul­cer­a­tion. Sys­temic symp­toms, which often in­clude heart pal­pi­ta­tions, may occur sud­denly and soon after being bit. Deinagk­istrodon acu­tus is re­spon­si­ble for many of the snake-bite re­lated moral­i­ties in south­ern China and Tai­wan. For­tu­nately, re­searchers have been able to man­u­fac­ture a mono­va­lent an­tivenin to ad­min­is­ter to bite-vic­tims. How­ever, the an­tivenin is only ef­fec­tive if taken within a few hours of the bite. (Chen, et al., 2002; Zhao and Adler, 1993)

Con­trib­u­tors

Jen­nifer Vi­cente (au­thor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, Matthew Wund (ed­i­tor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, John Berini (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

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Snakes of the Agk­istrodon Com­plex: A Mono­graphic Re­view

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