Endangered
Hypnale nepa
Hypnale nepa
Hypnale nepa, the Sri Lankan hump-nosed viper, is a venomous pitviper species endemic to Sri Lanka where it is known as මූකලන් තෙලිස්සා (mukalan thelissa) in Sinhala.
Appearance
This species is distinguished from H. Hypnale by a snout that has a strongly upturned tip. This is due to an extended rostral scale, that is immediately followed by a raised wart-like hump covered with 7-14 very small scales. The scalation includes 17 rows of dorsal scales at midbody that are weakly keeled or smooth, 124-142 ventral scales, and 33-41 subcaudal scales.
Adults grow to a total length of 30–35 cm (11+3⁄4–13+3⁄4 in).
Range and habitat
Hypnale nepa is found in Sri Lanka throughout forested areas, from lowland rainforest to over 1,800 m (5,900 ft) altitude. Hypnale nepa, the Sri Lankan hump-nosed viper, is a venomous pitviper species endemic to Sri Lanka where it is known as මූකලන් තෙලිස්සා (mukalan thelissa) in Sinhala.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Hypnale nepa is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hypnale nepa, Wikidata item Q2710677. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
