Abronia

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Cladus: Unidentata, Episquamata
Cladus: Toxicofera
Subordo: Serpentes
Infraordo: Caenophidia
Superfamilia: Viperoidea

Familia: Viperidae
Subfamilia: Crotalinae
Genus: Gloydius
Species (24): G. angusticeps – G. blomhoffii – G. brevicaudus – G. caraganus – G. caucasicus – G. changdaoensis – G. cognatus – G. halys – G. himalayanus – G. huangi – G. intermedius – G. lateralis – G. lipipengi – G. liupanensis – G. monticola – G. qinlingensis – G. rickmersi – G. rubromaculatus – G. shedaoensis – G. stejnegeri – G. strauchi – G. swild – G. tsushimaensis – G. ussuriensis
Name

Gloydius Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981: 194 [nomen substitutum]

Type species: Trigonocephalus halys Boie, 1827 [= Coluber halys Pallas, 1776], by original designation.

Synonyms

Halys Gray, 1849: 14 [as subgenus of Trigonocephalus, preoccupied by Halys Fabricius, 1803]
Type species: Trigonocephalus halys Boie, 1827 [= Coluber halys Pallas, 1776], by subsequent designation.

References
Primary references

Gray, J.E. 1849. Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Edward Newman: London. i–xv, 1–125. BHL
Hoge, A.R. & Romano-Hoge, S.A.R.W.L. [1978–1979] 1981. Poisonous snakes of the world. Part I. Check list of the pit vipers, Viperoidea, Viperidae, Crotalinae. Memórias do Instituto Butantan 42/43: 179–309.

Additional references

Xu, Y., Liu, Q., Myers, E.A., Wang, L., Huang, S., He, Y., Peng, P.-H. & Guo, P. 2012. Molecular Phylogeny of the Genus Gloydius (Serpentes: Crotalinae). Asian Herpetological Research 3(2): 127–132. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1245.2012.00127 Reference page.
Wagner, P., Tiutenko, A., Mazepa, G., Borkin, L.J. & Simonov, E. 2016. Alai! Alai! – a new species of the Gloydius halys (Pallas, 1776) complex (Viperidae, Crotalinae), including a brief review of the complex. Amphibia-Reptilia 37(1): 15–31. DOI: 10.1163/15685381-00003026 ResearchGate Open access Reference page.
Shi, J.-S., Yang, D.-W., Zhang, W.-Y., Qi, S., Li, P.-P. & Ding, L. 2016. Distribution and Infraspecies Taxonomy of Gloydius halys-Gloydius intermedius Complex in China (Serpentes: Crotalinae) (In Chinese with English summary). Chinese Journal of Zoology 51(5): 777–798. DOI: 10.13859/j.cjz.201605008 Reference page.
Shi, J.-S., Wang, G., Chen, X., Fang, Y., Ding, L., Huang, S., Hou, M., Liu, J. & Li, P. 2017. A New Moth-preying Alpine Pit Viper Species from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (Viperidae, Crotalinae). Amphibia-Reptilia 38(4): 517–532. DOI: 10.1163/15685381-00003134 Reference page.
Shi, J.-S., Yang, D., Zhang, W.-Y., Peng, L., Orlov, N.L., Jiang, F., Ding, L., Hou, M., Huang, X., Huang, S. & Li, P. 2018. A New Species of the Gloydius strauchi Complex (Crotalinae: Viperidae: Serpentes) from Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu, China. Russian Journal of Herpetology 25(2): 126–138. DOI: 10.30906/1026-2296-2018-25-2-126-138 Paywall Reference page.
Shi, J.-S., Liu, J.-C., Giri, R., Owens, J.B., Santra, V., Kuttalam, S., Selvan, M., Guo, K.-J. & Malhotra, A. 2021. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus Gloydius (Squamata, Viperidae, Crotalinae), with description of two new alpine species from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. ZooKeys 1061: 87–108. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1061.70420 Reference page.
Wang, K., Ren, J.-L., Dong, W.-J., Jiang, K., Shi, J.-S., Siler, C.D. & Che, J. 2019. A New Species of Plateau Pit Viper (Reptilia: Serpentes: Gloydius) from the Upper Lancang (= Mekong) Valley in the Hengduan Mountain Region, Tibet, China. Journal of Herpetology 53(1): 224–236. DOI: 10.1670/18-126 Paywall Reference page.
Zhang, M-H., Shi, S-C., Li, C., Yan, P., Wang, P., Ding, L., Du, J., Plenković-Moraj, A., Jiang, J-P. & Shi, J-S. 2022. Exploring cryptic biodiversity in a world heritage site: a new pitviper (Squamata, Viperidae, Crotalinae) from Jiuzhaigou, Aba, Sichuan, China. Zookeys 1114: 59–76. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1114.79709 Open access Reference page.

Links

Uetz, P. & Hallermann, J. 2024. Gloydius . The Reptile Database. Accessed on 1 May 2019.

Vernacular names
English: Asian Ground Pitvipers
日本語: マムシ属

Gloydius is a genus of venomous pitvipers endemic to Asia, also known as Asian moccasins or Asian ground pit vipers. Named after American herpetologist Howard K. Gloyd,[2] this genus is very similar to the North American genus Agkistrodon. 24 species are currently recognized.[3]
Geographic range

Species of Gloydius are found in Russia, east of the Ural Mountains through Siberia, Iran, Himalayas from Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Korea, Japan and the Ryukyu Islands.[1]
Species

Species^[3]	Taxon author^[3]	Subsp.*^[3]	Common name^[4]	Geographic range^[1]
G. angusticeps	J. Shi, Yang, Huang, Orlov & P. Li, 2018	0	Zoige pit viper	China, (Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu).
G. blomhoffii	(H. Boie, 1826)	3	Japanese mamushi	Japan.
G. brevicauda	(Stejneger, 1907)	0	Short-tailed mamushi	North Korea, South Korea, and China.
G. caraganus	(Eichwald, 1831)	0	Karaganda pitviper	Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
G. caucasicus	(Nikolsky, 1916)	0	Caucasian pitviper	Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
G. chambensis	Kuttalam, Santra, Owens, Selvan, Mukherjee, Graham, Togridou, Bharti, Shi, Shanker & Malhotra, 2022^[5]	0	Chamba pitviper	Chamba District, Himachal Pradesh.
G. changdaoensis	L. Li, 1999	0		China.
G. cognatus	(Gloyd, 1977)	0	Alashan pitviper	China.
G. halys^T	(Pallas, 1776)	4	Siberian pitviper	Russia, east of the Ural Mountains through Siberia, Iran, Mongolia to northern and central China, as well as the southern Ryukyu Islands.
G. himalayanus	(Günther, 1864)	0	Himalayan pitviper	Along the southern slopes of the Himalayas from northeastern Pakistan, to northern India (Kashmir, Punjab) and Nepal. Found at 1524–3048 m altitude.
G. huangi	K. Wang, Ren, Dong, Jiang, Shi, Siler & Che, 2019	0	Lancang Plateau viper	Tibet.
G. intermedius	(Strauch, 1868)	2	Central Asian pitviper	Southeastern Azerbaijan, northern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, northwestern Afghanistan, southern Russia, northwestern China and Mongolia.
G. lateralis	Zhang, S. Shi, C. Li, Yan, P. Wang, Ding, Du, Plenković-Moraj, Jiang & J. Shi, 2022	0		Jiuzhaigou County, China.^[6]
G. lipipengi	J. Shi, J-C. Liu & Malhotra, 2021	0	Nujiang pit viper	China.
G. liupanensis	N. Liu, Z. Song & Luo, 1989	0		Gansu, China.
G. monticola	(F. Werner, 1922)	0	Likiang pitviper	The mountains of northern Yunnan in China.
G. qinlingensis	(M. Song & F. Chen, 1985)	0		Shaanxi, China.
G. rickmersi	Wagner, Tiutenko, Borkin & Simonov, 2015			Kyrgyzstan
G. rubromaculatus	J. Shi, P.Li & J. Liu, 2017	0		Tibetan Plateau.
G. saxatilis	(Emelianov, 1937)	0	Rock mamushi^[7]	Russia (eastern Siberia), northeastern China and North and South Korea.
G. shedaoensis	(Zhao, 1979)	0	Shedao island pitviper	Shedao Island, off the coast of Liaotung, China.
G. stejnegeri	(Rendahl, 1933)	0	Gobi pitviper	China and Mongolia.
G. strauchi	(Bedriaga, 1912)	0	Strauch's pitviper	The Tibetan Plateau in the provinces of Tsinghai and western Szechwan, China.
G. swild	J. Shi & Malhotra, 2021	0		China.
G. tsushimaensis	(Isogawa, Moriya & Mitsui, 1994)	0	Tsushima Island pitviper	Tsushima Island, Japan.
G. ussuriensis	(Emelianov, 1929)	0	Ussuri mamushi	Far east Russia (Primorskiy Kray), northeastern China, North and South Korea, as well as Quelpart Island.

(*) Not including the nominate subspecies.
(T) Type species.

In the above list, a taxon author in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a different genus.
Taxonomy

Due to the strong morphological similarity, these snakes were classified in the genus Agkistrodon until very recently. However, by 1999 cladistic studies clearly showed that Agkistrodon did not form a clade (indeed, it was not even paraphyletic) and was thus split into several genera.

A new species, G. tsushimaensis, was described by Isogawa, Moriya & Mitsui (1994). It is referred to as the Tsushima island pitviper and is found only on Tsushima Island, Japan.
References

McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Gloydius, p. 102).
"Gloydius ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 17 October 2006.
Gumprecht A, Tillack F, Orlov NL, Captain A, Ryabov S (2004). Asian Pitvipers. First Edition. Berlin: Geitje Books. 368 pp. ISBN 3-937975-00-4.
Kuttalam, Sourish; Santra, Vishal; Owens, John Benjamin; Selvan, Melvin; Mukherjee, Nilanjan; Graham, Stuart; Togridou, Anatoli; Bharti, Omesh K.; Shi, Jingsong; Shanker, Kartik; Malhotra, Anita (2022). "Phylogenetic and morphological analysis of Gloydius himalayanus (Serpentes, Viperidae, Crotalinae), with the description of a new species". European Journal of Taxonomy (852): 1–30. doi:10.5852/ejt.2022.852.2003. S2CID 254676412. (Gloydius chambensis, new species).
Zhang, Mei-Hua; Shi, Sheng-Chao; Li, Cheng; Yan, Peng; Wang, Ping; Ding, Li; Du, Jie; Plenković-Moraj, Anđelka; Jiang, Jian-Ping; Shi, Jing-Song (2022-07-25). "Exploring cryptic biodiversity in a world heritage site: a new pitviper (Squamata, Viperidae, Crotalinae) from Jiuzhaigou, Aba, Sichuan, China". ZooKeys (1114): 59–76. Bibcode:2022ZooK.1114...59Z. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1114.79709. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 9848824. PMID 36761701. (Gloydius lateralis, new species).

Gloyd HK, Conant R (1990). Snakes of the Agkistrodon Complex: A Monographic Review. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 614 pp., 52 plates. LCCN 89-50342. ISBN 0-916984-20-6.