NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Himalayan Pitviper
Gloydius himalayanus (Günther, 1864)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Himalayan Pitviper (Gloydius himalayanus)
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Open encyclopedia reference
Gloydius himalayanus also known as the Himalayan pit viper or the Himalayan viper
is a pit viper species found along the southern slopes of the Himalayas in Pakistan, India and Nepal. No subspecies are currently recognized. Himalayan pit vipers have been found up to 4900m above sea level, which makes it the highest living snake ever found.
Wikipedia contributors, Gloydius himalayanus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:16:38.396011+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Gloydius himalayanus (Günther, 1864)
- Name authority
- (Günther, 1864)
- Common name
- Himalayan Pitviper
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Viperidae
- Genus
- Gloydius
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
- infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
- familyViperidae
- subfamilyCrotalinae
- genusGloydius
- speciesGloydius himalayanus (Günther, 1864)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Gloydius. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Ussuri MamushiGloydius ussuriensis (Emelianov, 1929) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gloydius qinlingensis (Song & Chen, 1985) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Caucasian pitviperGloydius caucasicus (Nikolsky, 1916) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lancang Plateau ViperGloydius huangi Wang, Ren, Dong, Jiang, Shi, Siler & Che, 2019 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Red-spotted alpine pit viperGloydius rubromaculatus Shi, LI & Liu, 2017 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Karaganda pitviperGloydius caraganus (Eichwald, 1831) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Alashan pitviperGloydius cognatus (Gloyd, 1977) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gobi pitviper)Gloydius stejnegeri (Rendahl, 1933) | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Zoige pit viperGloydius angusticeps Shi, Yang, Huang, Orlov & Li, 2018 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gloydius changdaoensis Li, 1999 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gloydius variegatus Ren, Huang, Wu, Jiang & Li, 2024 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Nepali PitviperGloydius nepalensis Jablonski, Tillack, Tillack, Petzold, Wilzo, Das, Idrees, Baniya, Masroor & Hofmann, 2026 | ViperidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Halys himalayanus Günther, 1864 Günther, 1864 | ambiguous synonym |
| Ancistrodon himalayanus Boulenger, 1896 Boulenger, 1896 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Gloydius&species=himalayanus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:6KLBV. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.