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Vipera Ammodytes, “Sand Viper” – Origin of Its Name, and a Sand Habitat in Greece

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Vipera Ammodytes, “Sand Viper” – Origin of Its Name, and a Sand Habitat in Greece Vipera ammodytes, “Sand Viper” – origin of its name, and a sand habitat in Greece Henrik Bringsøe Irisvej 8 DK-4600 Køge Denmark [email protected] Photos by the author Close-up view of Vipera ammodytes from Achaia Feneos. INTRODUCTION Greece has a rich viperid representation of As a guidance to habitat preference and other five species (JOGER & STÜMPEL, 2005). How- natural historical aspects of V. ammodytes, ever, four of them have small and localised my field observations on that species on the Greek distributions and are considered rare Peloponnese from April 2008 are provided. in Greece: Vipera berus in the northern Of particular relevance is one truly sandy mountains of the mainland, Vipera graeca in habitat in a coastal region with a rich popula- northern and central upland regions of the tion. mainland, Macrovipera schweizeri in the Mi- I will also explore the nomenclatural facets of los Archipelago (Western Cyclades), and V. ammodytes in a historical context as the Montivipera xanthina on the Eastern Aegean record behind well-established scientific islands and in coastal Thrace. names often dates much further back in time The fifth species, Vipera ammodytes, is ubi- than what the formal authorship of the bino- quitous (BRINGSØE, 1986; HECKES et al., mial names reveal. The oldest recognised bi- 2005; TRAPP, 2007) and basically forms a vi- nomial names date of course from 1758, i.e. perid landmark of Greece. Its popular name Linné’s Systema naturae (10th edition) which is either Sand Viper or Nose-horned Viper was, regrettably, very superficial in terms of (ARNOLD, 2002; STUMPEL-RIENKS, 1992). The herpetology. This paper hopes to illustrate latter name is understandable considering that works several hundred years older may the characteristic shape of its snout, which is provide much more detailed information, both turned upward in a prominent projection. on the origin of scientific names as well as on Sand Viper seems rather a peculiar name for species’ habits and habitats. A number of V. ammodytes as it rarely occurs in truly these very old books and/or manuscripts sandy habitats, although KREINER’s (2007) have been digitally scanned over recent and SCHLÜTER’s (2009) statements about its years, formatted in pdf, and are thus available absence from such environments are also in- to a much wider audience than previously correct, as I will demonstrate in this article. when only a select happy few had access to library vaults. ●2019● POD@RCIS n.s. 10 (2) 23 www.podarcis.nl NOMENCLATURAL HISTORY OF for being careless in providing correct geo- VIPERA AMMODYTES graphical information for the specimens, or whether the researchers publishing new data should be blamed, or possibly both, or other persons handling the specimens. In general I A. LINNÆUS (1758) find many of Linné’s descriptions of reptiles Two hundred and sixty-one years ago the and amphibians superficial or even mislea- foundations for the modern scheme of bino- ding, and I am more impressed by some ear- mial nomenclature were laid by Swedish bo- lier works that I will mention below. tanist, physician and zoologist Carl Linné (or Carl von Linné after his ennoblement, latin- Linné conducted most of his activities in Swe- ised as Carolus Linnæus or Carolus Lin- den and he did not travel much abroad, only naeus) in his work from 1758, Systema Natu- to northern and central Europe (MALMESTRÖM rae, having the full title Systema naturae per & UGGLA, 1957). He visited Denmark, Ger- regna tria naturae, secundum classes, many, England, France and The Nether- ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, lands, but, to my knowledge, never reached differentiis, synonymis, locis. Here the viper, southeastern Europe or the south-eastern at present known as Vipera ammodytes, was Alps that are inhabited by V. ammodytes. So given the name Coluber Ammodytes. The he did not have any experience with that spe- original generic name Coluber is Latin and cies in the wild. simply means “snake”, whereas ammodytes In spite of Linné’s status of being the father of has Greek origins as ammos means “sand”, modern taxonomy using binomial species and dutes means “burrower” or “diver”, in names, Latin, latinised or scientific names other words, the sand-diving snake. This were indeed well-known for numerous ani- meaning has already been explained in nu- mals and plants hundreds of years before merous publications, recently e.g. in LESCURE Linné wrote his important works. The alleged & LE GARFF (2006) and BODSON (2014). psammophilous habits of V. ammodytes date Linné’s diagnosis of the species was very much further back in time. brief: Nasus terminatus verruca erecta, which translates as Snout ended in an erect wart. Its range was also described briefly, but incor- B. ALDROVANDI (1639) rectly: Habitat in Oriente, i.e. the Orient or the Middle East. He mentions a male, indicating that the description was based upon this The scientific name of the specimen, however no further details were Sand Viper was intro- provided. The epitheton specificum (species duced much earlier than name) “Ammodytes” was spelled with an ini- in Linné’s Systema Natu- tial capital letter, unlike our current stan- rae. The Italian professor dards. For instance for the genus Coluber, of natural history Ulisse which he uses for 82 species of very diverse Aldrovandi described this snakes, representing the current families of snake in his work Serpen- Colubridae, Homalopsidae, Lamprophiidae, tum, et Draconum Histo- Elapidae, Viperidae and Pythonidae, 38 spe- riae Libri Duo Bartholo- cies epithets have an initial capital letter maeus Ambrosinus which whereas 44 have an initial lower case letter. was published in 1639, He used rules of grammar for that purpose so 34 years after his death, that e.g. nouns (like Ammodytes, Molurus and reissued in 1640. and Situla) are with an initial capital letter and The version currently adjectives (like agilis, annulatus and vittatus) available on the internet are spelled with an initial lower case letter. is from 1640. The viper was called Ammodite, Coluber Ammodytes is not the only species with an incorrect geographical distribution. I see also ADLER (2007). Aldrovandi had esta- Ulisse Aldrovandi: Serpentum, et would suggest that nearly half of them are Draconum Historiae Libri Duo Bar- wrong. I cannot say whether the explorers blished a museum in Bo- tholomaeus Ambrosinus, page 169. who collected animals abroad were to blame logna with an impressive 24 ●2019● POD@RCIS n.s. 10 (2) www.podarcis.nl specimen collection. He made numerous drawings of the specimens; woodcuts of these were made for his books. Page 169 is comprised of a full-page drawing of V. ammo- dytes which clearly depicts its characteristic “nose-horn”, described as “Vipera cornuta Il- lyrica”, i.e. horned viper from Dalmatia (see figure). Judging from the shape of the “horn”, pointing obliquely forward, it fits well with the nominate subspecies which covers that range. His description is much more detailed and accurate than that of Linné. But occur- rences in Italy and Libya are also mentioned, which is slightly confusing. Aldrovandi’s account of this viper, described as sand coloured, was again not the first, and referred to an even older work, that of Gessner. C. GESSNER (1589) The oldest source in which I found a descrip- tion of Vipera ammodytes is by the Swiss na- turalist and bibliographer Conrad Gessner from the 16th century. His famed work on zoo- GESSNER’s (1589) text from Historia Animalium, vol- logy, Historia Animalium in five volumes, was ume five, Serpentium Natura. published between 1551 and 1587 (ADLER, 1989). Volume five, Serpentium Natura, ap- ein grossern kopff breitere kinbacken / unnd peared in 1587. I have not been able to ac- an dem oberen erzeigt sich zu ausserst ein cess the original Latin version. However, a gewechs / gleych wie ein spitzige wartzen / German translation entitled Thierbuch was daher wirdt sie von theriac kremeren Aspide published and is now available on the Inter- del corno, daß ist ein gehörnte aspis schlang/ net. The snake volume Schlangenbüch ap- genennt/ unnd zwar nit ohn ursach / dieweyl peared in 1589. That was long after sie/ gleych der aspidi, den menschen Gessner’s death in 1565. The section on V. geschlingen tödtet unnd umbbringt.” ammodytes was worded as follows: Transcribed into current German: “Von der Ammodyte/das ist Sand- schlang “Von der Ammodyte/das ist die Sand- Ammodytes. Centrias. Amindatus. Sand- schlange schlang. Ammodytes. Centrias. Amindatus. Sand- Von irem namen und woh sie züfinden. schlange. Diß geschlecht der Schlangen bekompt sein Dieses Geschlecht der Schlangen bekommt nammen von der farb / die sich dem sand seinen Namen durch die Farbe / die dem des gentzlich vergleycht/oder auß der ursach/daß Sandes völlig gleicht/oder dadurch/dass sie sie mertheils im sand wohnet und sich darin- großenteils im Sand lebt und sich darin ver- nen verbirgt. Sie wirt in Lybien/deßglechen birgt. Sie wird für Libyen/desgleichen Ita- Italien/Windischland/unnd in der graffschafft lien/Windischland/und die Grafschaft Görz Görtz gezeüget / sie ist elln lang / gefarbt wie bezeugt / sie ist eine Elle lang / gefärbt wie sand / mit schwartzen püncten durchsprengt Sand / schwarz gepunktet / über den Rücken / über den rugken sind linien oder strich ge- sind Linien oder Striche gezogen. Ihr zogen. Ir schwantz ist oberhalb zerspalten Schwanz ist oberhalb gespalten und hart / und hart / unnd kurtz darvon züreden / so ist und kurz geschildert / so ist sie der Hecknat- sie der hecknatern gar änlich. Allein hatt sie ter sehr ähnlich. Sie hat allerdings einen ●2019● POD@RCIS n.s. 10 (2) 25 www.podarcis.nl similar to the hedge snake. It has however a larger head / wider jaws / and there is a pro- jection on the upper [jaw] / similar to a pointed wart / hence it is called Aspide del corno by snake-oil pedlars, that is a horned Asp Snake/ it is named/ and not without reason / therefore like the Aspidi, it kills by winding around humans.” Windischland is Slavonia, a historical region in eastern Croatia.
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