Identity of Costa Rican snake request

[Jack McKie]

Can anyone please identify the species of this snake from Costa Rica?
Thank you
jmckie@slantfin.com

[BWSmith]

I will check my Fieldguide to Reptiles of Costa Rica tongiht. I dont have access to my library here. It looks familiar, but I cannot place it. Time break out a book :)

[Matt]

Jack,
Jay Savage wrote the definitive book on Reptiles and Amphibians of Costa Rica....I just got my copy a month ago and checked for you.

None of the pics in the book look much like what you posted, but there are a couple that looks somewhat similar.

your pic is a little fuzzy, but my first suspect would be
Porthidium ophryomegas,
the pattern looks really similar as well as the lateral mark from the eye, but the color is really different, so im not entirely sure

that's my best guess from this book, which is AMAZING by the way! :D

[Jack McKie]

Thanks for your speedy reply. I have another copy of the picture but it was too large for the forums specs. Not being a snake person, would that Porthidium ophryomegas happen to be a rattlesnake?
Jack McKie

[BWSmith]

The only rattler is Costa Rica is the Tropical Rattler (Crotalus dirissus). That is definately not one. Going throught he field guide it is hard to say, almost looks like the color of the lIchen-Colored Snail eater (Sibon longfrensis) but it lacks the eye strip. The only thing I saw that evenly remotely resembles the eyestripe and patter (not really color) is the false fer de lance (Xenodon rabdocephalus). But those are just guesses from field guide pics and those are often not representative of the different species.

[Jack McKie]

Thanks for your help. I just found the answer on Google. It's an Eyelash viper (Bothriechis schleglii) a small pit viper from Central America.
Jack

[Matt]

i was thinking eyelish, but the pattern and from what little i can see of the head stucture did not look like a schleglii

im heading off to costa rica in 6 weeks, maybe I'll find something similar :D

[BWSmith]

Still doesn't look like an Eyelash to me.

[Matt]

i think a closer head shot would be much more helpful if you have one??

[Jack McKie]

Here is a closer look at the head and the lashes.

[Jeff_Favelle]

How could that be a rattlesnake with NO rattle?

[fatboy]

Ever seen a Dusky Pigmy? The rattles are there but very small. Jack also said he was not a snake person. I can see why he could think that.

[red bootz]

Isn't there a rattlesnake on some island that doesn't have a rattle?

[BWSmith]

The Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake (Crotalus catalinensis) has no rattle.

[red bootz]

Much obliged!

[Jack McKie]

Here is a close-up of the tail (rattle?)
Jack

[jaybox_reptiles]

it isnt a rattler it is a specias from costa rica it is part of the Pit viper family such as the Ferd A Lance is

[Matt]

Originally posted by jaybox_reptiles
Ferd A Lance is

fer-de-lance!