Viperidae - Crotalinae - 2006 Publications
 

Trimeresurus puniceus complex
David et al. (2006) revised the taxonomy of the Trimeresurus puniceus group of pitvipers, using multivariate analysis of morphological characters and mtDNA sequence analysis. The group has a history of taxonomic confusion, with most populations being at some pointregarded as conspecific with T. puniceus and/or T. borneensis. The results of David et al. (2006) lead to the recognition of five distinct species within the complex. Trimeresurus puniceus is confined to Java and southern Sumatra. A possibly distinct species from western Sumatra is flagged but not named by the authors. Trimeresurus borneensis is confined to the island of Borneo, whereas populations previously assigned to this species from theMalayan Peninsula are assigned to Trimeresurus wiroti, a species with a history of controversy and confusion with T. puniceus and T. borneensis. Trimeresurus brongersmai is recognised from the islands of Siberut and Simeulue, off western Sumatra. Finally, a new species, Trimeresurus andalasensis, is described from northern Sumatra. This species was previously regarded as being conspecific with T. borneensis.
Description of Popeia buniana

Grismer et al. (2006) describe the pitviper Popeia buniana, for which they suggest the common name "Fairy Pitviper", from the island of Pulau Tioman, off the east coast of the Malayan Peninsula. The new species differs from other taxa of Popeia in having higher ventral scale counts, a slenderer build, and from individual species ofthe complex through other charcaters of scalation, body proportions and pattern. The Tioman population was previously classified as Trimeresurus fucatus by Vogel et al. (2004) and as Popeia sabahi by Sanders et al. (2006) based on both molecular phylogenetic and morphological grounds. The different approaches of Sanders et al. (2006) and Grismer et al. (2006) are partly due to different concepts of species espoused by different groups of authors.