Broad-banded Temple Pitviper

The broad-banded temple pitviper is an ornate Sulawesi endemic. Its green head carries brown markings edged in cream, a broad stripe passes before and behind the eye, and the lips are patterned with bordered brown spots. Broad brick-red to brown body rings are separated by pale and green areas. Unlike related temple vipers, its colour pattern does not change strongly with age or sex (Reptile Database diagnosis).

Tropidolaemus laticinctus is venomous, fully arboreal and live-bearing. The type locality lies between Lake Poso and Tomini Bay in Central Sulawesi. Its scientific epithet means broad-ringed or broad-banded, describing the body rings that separate it from sympatric relatives with narrow spots or bands. The opened sources did not provide prey, adult length, litter size, gestation or activity schedule (Reptile Database; Kuch and colleagues 2007).