Ecological study on the venomous snakes in Guangxi, China

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We have made survey on ecological aspects of the venomous snakes in Guangxi Zhuan Autonomous Region, China.In Ziyuan district, northenmost area of Guangxi, we have checked the possibility of the presence of Agkistrodon sp, because there were several snake-bite cases considered to be Agkistrodon bite by some authorities.Although we have found many snakes, lizards and frogs whose affinities are northern areas from Guangxi, we have failed to find Agkistrodon.The medical staffs of the District have agreed to continue the survey in future and retain the specimens for the future investigation.As for the distribution of two species of green pit vipers, Trimeresurus albolabris has been shown to occur in northern Guangxi and Guizhou, and very common in southern Guangxi.T.stejnegeri may be more common in montanus area.On the other hand, T.mucrosquamatus is very common in northern area as Ziyuan.The staffs of Fangcheng also agreed to retain the specimens causing the bite and make it possible to check the symptoms with actual snake for the case.In Beihai area, several seasnake bites occur annualy, and no antivenom is available in China presently.Guangxi Medical University has an idea to produce antivenom in future, and we have tried to collect venom from the heads cut off during cooking for seasnake dish and quite successful to obtain good venom to immune.The most abundant species in the shore of Beihai is Lapemis curtus, and Hydrophis cyanocinctus is the next.In Longzhou, the area of Vietnamese border, we have found a new species of the genus Boiga.Only three specimens are retained by the Guangxi Medical University, and will be described in the near future.The venom of Naja atra is less potent than other species of Naja in Southeast Asia, and cause more necrosis under skin which occur immediately after the bite and the antivenom tends to be late.