Males grow to a maximum total length of 112 cm (44 in) with a tail length of 19.5 cm (7.7 in). Females grow to a maximum total length of 116 cm (46 in) with a tail length of 20.5 cm (8.1 in).[8]
Scalation: dorsal scales in 25 longitudinal rows at midbody; scales on upper surface of head, small, each scale keeled posteriorly; internasals 5–10 times size of adjacent scales, separated by 3–4 scales; supraoculars, long, narrow, undivided, 14–16 small interoculars in line between them; 2 scales on line between upper preocular and nasal scale; 9–11 upper labials, first upper labial separated from nasal by suture; 2–3 small scales between upper labials and subocular; 2–3 rows of temporal scales above upper labials smooth, above those scales keeled; ventrals 200–218; subcaudals 76–91, all paired.[8]
Color pattern: grayish or olive brown above, with dorsal series of large brown, black-edged spots or blotches, and a lateral series of smaller spots; head above brownish, below whitish; belly whitish but heavily powdered with light brown; tail brownish (possibly pink in life [fideM.A. Smith 1943:507]), with series of dark dorsal spots.[8]
Brown spotted pitviper,[4] pointed-scaled pit viper, habu,[5] Taiwan habu (タイワンハブ), Chinese habu, Formosan pit viper.[9] The Chinese name is 龜殼花蛇or原矛头蝮.
^ abMcDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN1-893777-01-4 (volume).
^Brown JH. 1973. Toxicology and Pharmacology of Venoms from Poisonous Snakes. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. 184 pp. LCCCN 73-229. ISBN0-398-02808-7.
Boulenger, G.A. 1890. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, Printers.) London. xviii + 541 pp. (Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus, p. 428.)
Cantor, T.E. 1839. Spicilegium Serpentium Indicorum [parts 1 and 2]. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, Part VII 1839: 31-34, 49-55.
Kraus, Fred; Mink, Daniel G.; & Brown, Wesley M. 1996. Crotaline intergeneric relationships based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Copeia 1996 (4): 763-773.
Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, Printers.) London. xii + 583 pp. (Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus, pp. 507–508.)
Tu, M.-C. et al. 2000 Phylogeny, Taxonomy, and Biogeography of the Oriental Pit Vipers of the Genus Trimeresurus (Reptilia: Viperida Crotalinae): A Molecular Perspective. Zoological Science 17: 1147–1157.
