India now has a fifth brown pit viper but with a reddish tinge. The new species also makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it. Mr. Captain, who made the discovery with V. Deepak, Rohan Pandit, Bharat Bhatt, and Ramana Athreya said India had four brown pit vipers before the Arunachal Pradesh discovery. “We don’t know anything of the Arunachal pit viper’s natural history as only one male has been found so far. Mr. Bhatt, a scientist of the Arunachal Pradesh forest department, said that the single known specimen of this species makes it currently the rarest pit viper in the world.

Source: The Hindu May 09, 2019 05:48 UTC