Saturday, February 8, 2014

Sri Lankan Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus trigonocephalus)

Engish:     Sri Lankan Green Pit Viper
Scientific: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
Sinhala:    පලා පොළඟා [Pala Polanga]

T. trigonocephalus is an endemic snake of Sri Lanka. It is moderately venomous and venom mostly consists of hemotoxins that can affect on the bloodstream of it’s pray or enemy. This nocturnal viper has a pair of pit organs on either side of their head that can detect infrared light / heat rays emitted by its pray or enemy. There for Sri Lankan Green Pit Vipers are considered to have a night vision similar to a modern military equipment. Even though they are distributed across most parts of Sri Lanka, Most commonly seen in wet zone rain forest such as Sinharaja and Kanneliya.

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