Bothriechis lateralis, images deleted.

Mirco Kempter has deleted his images.

Mirco, your babies have grown and appear to be getting ready to have babies of their own.

Blue sky's nothing but blue sky's.....

That blue colour is stunning!

Thanks for sharing,

Tim

Outstanding. Beautiful color too!

Wonderful snakes you have there Mirco, whats there temperment like?

Mirco Kempter has deleted his post.

Those are so beutiful. Dreamsnakes!

Beautiful specimen.
What do You feed them with?
Is there any information about the venom of these species?
Is there a difference in colours between the sexes?

Thank you Günter.
My B. lateralis feed on normal fancy mice; two 3/4 or one fully grown per 10-14 days and adult snake. Babies have to be teased, but will then more or less readily feed on pinkies.


Not much is known about its venom. In search of professional articles about medical treatment after an envenomation by the side-striped palm-pitviper, virtually nothing can be found, not even a single case report.

Bogarín et al. published following LD50 for the venom of B. lateralis: median lethal dose, estimated by the intraperitoneal route and expressed in μg per 18-22 g mouse is 120 (a: Instituto Butantan) or per 16-18g mouse 88 (b: Instituto Clodomiro Picado). Values of LD50s were estimated independently at Instituto Butantan and Instituto Clodomiro Picado, using methods that basically differed in the strain and weight of mice. Just to give you an idea, for B. schlegelii they found a) 121 and b) 81μg, so about the same.
Needless to say, the venom yield is not considered here.
But referring to the length of their fangs, humans won't be bitten intraperitoneal like mice may be, but subcutaneous, which would lead to a considerably higher LD50 in mice as well. Some large Viperinae and Crotalinae may be capable of inflicting an intramuscular bite in humans (large specimen of the genera Bitis, Bothriopsis, Bothrops, Crotalus, Lachesis, Protobothrops..)

In general its venom has hemorrhagic effects (that means it may promote coagulopathies with local or even systemic bleeding). The minimum hemorrhagic dose (amount of venom that induces a hemorrhagic area of 10 mm diameter 2 h after intradermal injection in mice) of B. lateralis venom was compared with the venom of 15 other crotalids from Central and South America, including Bothrops asper, atrox, jararacussu, Bothropoides erythromelas, jararaca et cetera. Only Bothropoides neuwiedi venom showed a slightly higher hemorrhagic activity. But in contrast to all the other venoms tested, B. lateralis venom showed no coagulant activity (that means it won't induce coagulation and therefore won't lead to thromboses of smaller blood vessels). By the way, the venoms of many Viperidae have anti- and at the same time procoagulant effects.


In PubMed only the following three articles are listed:

Snake venomics and antivenomics of the arboreal neotropical pitvipers Bothriechis lateralis and Bothriechis schlegelii.
Lomonte B, Escolano J, Fernández J, Sanz L, Angulo Y, Gutiérrez JM, Calvete JJ.
J Proteome Res. 2008 Jun;7(6):2445-57. Epub 2008 Apr 30.

Pharmacokinetics of whole IgG equine antivenom: comparison between normal and envenomed rabbits.
Quesada L, Sevcik C, Lomonte B, Rojas E, Gutiérrez JM.
Toxicon. 2006 Sep 1;48(3):255-63. Epub 2006 Jun 14.

Neutralization of crotaline snake venoms from Central and South America by antivenoms produced in Brazil and Costa Rica.
Bogarín G, Morais JF, Yamaguchi IK, Stephano MA, Marcelino JR, Nishikawa AK, Guidolin R, Rojas G, Higashi HG, Gutiérrez JM.
Toxicon. 2000 Oct;38(10):1429-41.


There is no relevant difference in the colour pattern of male and female specimen. Their colouring depends on their locality and changes with their age. Babies are born reddish-brown, then change their base colouring after 6-9 months to let's say for example a bright mint, which may then turn into a bilious green after another year, to possibly end up turquoise or even steel blue two to three years later (which definately depends on their locality!).

hope that helps

Mirco Kempter has deleted his images.

Great looking animals.

very nice snake !!!

great color...

Greetings from Incas´Land