Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
(A)
(B)
Plate 4.87
(A and B) Wagler's pit viper;Temple viper; ular kapak tokong; ular bakaw;
djalimoo; others (
Tropidolaemus wagleri
), Penang Temple, Penang, Malaysia.
The genus
Tropidolaemus
contains five species (
T. wagleri
,
T. huttoni
,
T. semiannulatus
,
T. laticinctus
, and
T. philippinensis
; Vogel et al., 2007) of distinctive arboreal crotaline viperids that are respectively
found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the Indian
subcontinent.
Tropidolaemus wagleri
venom contains several unique, small peptide neurotoxins
(e.g. the molecular mass of waglerin 1=2.5 kDa) that have ontogenetically determined murine
AchR subunit specificity. Although two of these toxins have lethal potency for adult mice
that approaches the toxicity of
Naja naja
crude venom, they are not active in neonate mice or
humans. Bites by
T. wagleri
typically cause only mild-to-moderate local effects.
Photos copyright to David A. Warrell.
Therefore, in a medically relevant sense, it is premature and presumptive to consider this
species “neurotoxic” without procurement of further clinical evidence.
Therefore,
B. irregularis
must be considered both an ecological threat and medi-
cally important species. This species produces the largest Duvernoy's secretion
yield of any non-front-fanged colubroid studied to date. Large specimens should be
approached with caution, and people living in areas affected by this invasive species
should take careful precautions to protect infants, children, and domestic pets. Any
infant or child bitten by a
B. irregularis
must be carefully monitored in a medical
facility as systemic effects are possible and may occur as a result of the toxic effects
from introduced Duvernoy's secretion, and/or the non-secretion-related effects of
constriction-induced physical trauma.
