The butterfly viper’s scales are so rough and heavily keeled that they can inflict cuts when being handled.
The butterfly viper’s midbody has 31–43 dorsal scale rows. There are 117–140 ventral scales and a single anal scale. There are 12-32 paired subcaudals, enlarged plates on the underside of the tail, with males having a higher count of 25–30 than females with 16–19.
The butterfly viper’s scales are so rough and heavily keeled that they sometimes inflict cuts on handlers when the snakes struggle.
• Image | © Jonathan Kolby, Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Sources | (Mallow, Ludwig, & Nilson, 2003; Spawls, Howell, Drewes, & Ashe, 2004; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2018)
