The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere
The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere
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西半球的有毒爬行动物
DOI：
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发表时间：
2005
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Wolfgang Wüster
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文献类型：
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作者：
Wolfgang Wüster
西半球的有毒爬行动物种类繁多，五颜六色。直到15年前，关于这种动物的文献散布在一系列往往鲜为人知的作品中，有一些关于特定国家的动物的出版物提供了对有毒两栖动物多样性的部分见解。然后，在1989年，当坎贝尔和拉马尔发表了他们的不朽的拉丁美洲有毒爬行动物(VRLA)时，一切都改变了，他们第一次收集了发生在格兰德河以南的有毒爬行动物物种的所有可用的分类、描述和分布信息。在序言中，作者谦虚地表示，他们希望这本书能刺激对这些生物的新研究。15年后，坎贝尔和拉马尔现在提供了西半球有毒爬行动物VRLA的后续卷。这本书与其杰出的前辈之间的第一个明显区别是大小：VRWH有两卷，每卷都比VRLA大。这种差异只是由于地理覆盖面的扩大而造成的一小部分。这在很大程度上归功于自VRLA出版以来积累的大量新的和令人着迷的信息。对于这种积累，坎贝尔和拉马尔无疑可以说是功不可没：VRLA提供了一个巨大的动物群的明显切入点，以及更广泛和广泛分布的专业文献，因此很大程度上鼓励了其他人，包括这位评论家，致力于对这些动物的进一步研究。这部新作的布局在很大程度上沿袭了前一部作品。第一卷介绍了美洲的地理和毒蛇动物群(包括每个国家的物种检索表)，以及新大陆大多数有毒爬行动物的物种。第二卷包含响尾蛇的物种记述，一本引人注目的96页书目，以及由嘉宾作者撰写的四个单独的章节，内容涉及毒蛇模仿、新大陆毒蛇的进化，以及两个主要是医学的章节，第一个在北美，第二个在中美洲和南美洲。第一卷以概述该书范围的导言开始，并简要概述了自VRLA出版以来发生的分类变化。导言之后是区域描述，其中包括对美洲每个国家(智利除外，该国没有正面毒蛇)和那些拥有本地毒蛇种群的加勒比海岛屿的地形和植被的描述。对于每个国家，作者提供了一个按植被类型划分的有毒物种分布表，并提供了毒蛇的二分检索表。正如作者承认的那样，为大量相似但高度可变的分类群设计检索表是一项艰巨的任务。尽管如此，在某些情况下，可以为某些物种找到更可靠的特征。因此，在Bothrops属的检索表中，具有弱发育的后眼纹的Bothrops moojeni的标本(一种常见的情况)将在复联21到24处作为Bothrops brasil而被关键淘汰-事实上，唇上数是比某种主观的模式描述更可靠的指导，B.braili几乎总是有8和B.moojeni 7(只有几个百分比的标本偏离标准)，这种区别适用于Bothrops的几个种组的诊断。然而，与物种账户相结合，这些关键字应该是有用的。这本书的中心部分包括各个物种的记述，每个记述的篇幅在半页到七页半之间。每个物种帐户包含同名、英文和本地名称、分布和栖息地的帐户、物种的详细物理描述、与类似物种的区别以及关于分类和其他信息的注释。所有的描述都被很好地引用，为这些迷人的有机体提供了一个无与伦比的介绍，介绍了关于这些迷人的生物的大量和分散的文献。分类群记述还附有分布图和1365张彩色照片，大多数照片的质量都非常突出，还有一些黑白照片。在分类学方面，作者介绍了一些可能会让许多读者感到惊讶的小说编排。在某种程度上，这是不可避免的：我们对新大陆蛇类动物系统学的理解仍在很大程度上发展，这并不是什么秘密，同样，该动物群中两位最有经验的专家对某些生物的系统学有迄今未发表的见解也不足为奇，他们应该希望将这些见解纳入一本这样的书中。在影响知名物种的分类学创新中，坎贝尔和拉马尔确认了帕纳马和南美洲西北部达里恩和乔科地区的第四种大毒蛇(Lachesis)，重新命名了这个名字
The Western Hemisphere contains a diverse and colorful fauna of venomous reptiles. Until 15 years ago, the literature on this fauna was scattered across a range of often obscure works, with a few publications on the faunas of particular countries providing partial insights into the diversity of venomous herpetofauna. Then, in 1989, everything changed when Campbell and Lamar published their monumental Venomous Reptiles of Latin America (VRLA), assembling for the first time all the available taxonomic, descriptive, and distributional information on the venomous reptile species occurring south of the Rio Grande. In the preface, the authors modestly expressed their hope that the book would stimulate new research on these creatures. Fifteen years later, Campbell and Lamar now offer the successor volume to VRLA, The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere (VRWH). The first obvious difference between this book and its illustrious predecessor is the obvious one of size: VRWH comes in two volumes, each larger than VRLA. This difference is only in small part due to the increased geographic coverage. Much is down to the vast amounts of new and fascinating information that has accumulated since the publication of VRLA. For this accumulation, Campbell and Lamar can undoubtedly claim much credit: VRLA provided the obvious entry point to a vast fauna, and an even vaster and widely scattered specialist literature, and thus did much to encourage others, including this reviewer, to dedicate themselves to further research on these animals. The layout of this new work largely follows that of its predecessor. The first volume contains an introduction to the geography and venomous snake fauna of the Americas (including a key to the species of each country), and species accounts for most New World venomous reptiles. Volume 2 contains the species accounts for the rattlesnakes, a remarkable 96-page bibliography, and four separate chapters written by guest authors, on venomous snake mimicry, the evolution of New World venomous snakes, and two principally medical chapters covering reptile envenoming, the first in North America and the second in Central and South America. Volume 1 starts with an introduction outlining the scope of the book, as well as giving a brief synopsis of taxonomic changes that have taken place since the publication of VRLA. The introduction is followed by regional accounts, which include a description of the physiography and vegetation of each country in the Americas (except Chile, which is devoid of front-fanged venomous snakes) and those Caribbean islands that have native populations of venomous snakes. For each country, the authors present a table of the distribution of the venomous species by vegetation type, and a dichotomous key to the venomous snakes. As the authors acknowledge, designing keys for a plethora of similar but highly variable taxa is a difficult task. Nonetheless, in some cases, more reliable characters could have been found for some sets of species. Thus, in the key to the genus Bothrops, specimens of Bothrops moojeni with weakly developed postocular stripes (a common occurrence) will key out as Bothrops brazili at couplets 21 to 24—in fact, supralabial number is a far more reliable guide than somewhat subjective descriptions of pattern, B. brazili almost always having eight and B. moojeni seven (with only a few percent of specimens deviating from the norm), and this distinction holds for the diagnosis of several species groups of Bothrops. Nevertheless, in conjunction with the species accounts, the keys should be useful. The centerpiece of the book consists of the individual species accounts, each covering between half a page and seven and a half pages. Each species account contains a synonymy, English and local names, an account of distribution and habitat, a detailed physical description of the species, differentiation from similar species, and remarks on taxonomy and other information. All accounts are well referenced, providing a peerless introduction to the vast and scattered literature on these fascinating organisms. The taxon accounts are complemented by distribution maps and 1365 color photographs, most of truly outstanding quality, as well as some black and white photographs. On the taxonomic front, the authors introduce a number of novel arrangements that may come as a surprise to many readers. To some extent, this is inevitable: it is no secret that our understanding of the systematics of the New World snake fauna is still very much evolving, and equally, it is not surprising that two of the most experienced specialists in that fauna should have hitherto unpublished insights into the systematics of some organisms, and that they should wish to incorporate these into a book such as this. Among the taxonomic innovations affecting high-profile species, Campbell and Lamar recognize a fourth species of bushmaster (Lachesis) from the Darién and Chocó regions of Panamá and northwestern South America, resurrecting the name