Eyelash Palm Pit Viper Facts

Description

The eyelash palm pit viper gets its name from the scales above its eyes. It Looks like there's a headband or lashes on the eyes. It can be easily recognized by its color and triangular head. They may be yellow, green or pink, depending on where they come from.

Their scales are so keeled that if you touch it , it feels rough and sharp. Their rough scales may have helped protect them from the branches and vines of their arboreal habitat, unlike most smooth-scaled snakes. They have a pair of heat-sensitive pits between the eyes and the nostrils. Its pupils are long vertical slits.

Size

The eyelash palm pit viper is one of the smallest venomous snakes in Central America, growing only 2.5 feet (76 cm) long and averaging about 22 to 32 inches (56 to 81 cm).

Habitat

The eyelash palm pit viper ranges from southern Mexico to Central America to Colombia, Ecuador and western Venezuela, although they are unintentionally sent around the world in banana shipments.

These pit viper are living from densely wooded, sea level forests, to the vegetation of moist lowlands and foothill creeks, to wooded cloud and mountain forests. They live mainly in shrubs, tangled vines, low branches of trees and palm trees. Eyelash palms pit vipers are mainly nocturnal and are usually found on trees, the leaves of large plants, or other vegetation above the ground.

Diet

The eyelash palm pit vipers usually strikes its prey really quickly, injecting it with venom and then waiting for the prey to die. Their teeth are often very long, and a bite can be painful and fatal. Usually, they don't bite unless they're teased or trampled on.

Adult eyelash palm pit vipers prey on small mammals, birds (including hovering hummingbirds), nestlings, lizards, and frogs. Juveniles mainly prey on small frogs.

Mating

The eyelash palm pit vipers use their smell to find their mates. When males compete for the same female, they undergo an amazing courtship ritual known as the dance of the "adders". They face each other, keeping their heads and forelimbs upright while trying to push each other toward the ground. This can last for hours. None of the competitors bit anyone.

Reproduction and development

Eyelash pit vipers are ovoviviparous. The female pit vipers keeps her fertilized eggs inside her body, and each developing baby snake is contained within a fibrous membrane "shell" and nourished by its yolk. When the young snakes are fully grown, they hatch from the egg membrane inside the fallopian tube, or they hatch immediately after their mother lays membranous eggs. Normally, a lash viper is a young bird between the ages of six and twelve, although more than twenty-five have been reported. Newborns are about 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 centimeters) long.