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Vipera renardi (CHRISTOPH, 1861)

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Higher TaxaViperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesVipera renardi renardi (CHRISTOPH 1861)
Vipera renardi bashkirovi GARANIN, PAVLOV & BAKIEV in BAKIEV et al. 2004
Vipera renardi parursinii NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001
Vipera renardi puzanovi KUKUSKIN 2009
Vipera renardi tienshanica NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001 
Common NamesE: Steppe Viper
G: Steppenotter
Russian: Степная гадюка
Chinese: 东方蝰 
SynonymPelias renardi CHRISTOPH 1861: 599
Vipera ursinii renardi — HARDING & WELCH 1980
Vipera renardi renardi — WELCH 1994: 123
Vipera (Pelias) renardi — NILSON et al. 1999: 101
Vipera ursinii — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 409
Vipera (Pelias) renardi — VENCHI & SINDACO 2006
Vipera ursinii — ZHAO 2006
Pelias renardi — WALLACH et al. 2014: 544
Pelias renardi— DUNAEV & ORLOVA 2017

Vipera renardi bashkirovi GARANIN, PAVLOV & BAKIEV in BAKIEV et al. 2004
Vipera renardi bashkirovi — KUCHARZEWSKI 2011
Vipera renardi bashkirovi — ZINENKO et al. 2015

Vipera renardi parursinii NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001
Vipera renardi parursinii NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001: 208
Vipera [renardi] parursinii — TUNIYEV et al. 2010
Vipera renardi parursinii — ZINENKO et al. 2015

Vipera renardi puzanovi KUKUSKIN 2009
Vipera renardi puzanovi — ZINENKO et al. 2015

Vipera renardi tienshanica NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001
Vipera renardi tienshanica NILSON & ANDRÉN 2001: 204
Vipera [renardi] tienshanica — TUNIYEV et al. 2010
Vipera renardi tienshanica — KUCHARZEWSKI 2011
Vipera renardi tienshanica — ZINENKO et al. 2015
Vipera renardi tienshanica — DAVLETBAKOV et al. 2016 
DistributionUkraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya, Uzbekistan, Tadzikistan, Mongolia, China

bashkirovi: Russia (Tatarstan); Type locality: Spassky Archipelago (Island) in the Volga River, Kuybyshev Reservoir (Vodokhranilische), south-western Tatarstan.

parursinii: NW China (mountain steppes in N Xinjiang).

puzanovi: Ukraine (Mountain Crimea).

renardi: Ukraine, Romania (fide Gruber 2009: 225); Type locality: Tawrow in don and Tambow in the steppes (Russia). “Sarepta" [Russia]. [Treated as a subspecies by Schwarz (1936:186)].

tienshanica: Kyrgyzstan, E Uzbekistan, N Tajikistan, SE Kazakhstan (Tien Shan mountains), NW China ?  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesSyntypes: Lost, according to G. Nilson (pers. comm.). A specimen (BMNH 1893.11.18.1) in the British Museum is from the type-locality but not part of the type series (Tuniyev et al. 2019: 158).
Syntypes: EMKSU (Zoological Museum of Kazan State University), 4 specimens [bashkirovi]
Holotype: CIB 775157, collected by Er-mi Zhao 1975 [parursinii]
Holotype: NMNHU (also as NNPM NASU) No 24 (Zoological Museum, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev), adult female, 26.07.1997. [puzanovi]
Holotype: BMNH 93.12.30.9, female; paratypes: MTD (= MTKD), BMNH [tienshanica] 
Diagnosis 
CommentVenomous!

Subspecies: Vipera renardi eriwanensis has been elevated to species status. Vipera renardi is treated as synonym of V. ursinii by MCDIARMID et al. (1999). Vipera lotievi is considered as a subspecies of V. renardi by some authors. A single sequence of V. r. parursinii from GenBank (Ferchaud et al., 2012) nested inside V. r. tienshanica haplotype ET in spite of a unique combination of morphological peculiarities of this taxon according to description (Nilson and Andrén, 2001).

Vipera renardi bashkirovi can be distinguised from the nominate form by the following characters: total length up to 710 mm; ventrals 120-154; subcaudals 22-35; 19-21 scales around midbody (B. Baker, pers. comm.).

Variation: for variation of the pileus scalation in Russian V. renardi see Kharchenko & Frolova 2022.

Distribution: not in Romania, fide Tibor Sos (pers. comm., 25. Dec 2015, see also his website). For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. 
EtymologyVipera renardi has been named after Karl Renard (1809-1886), former president of the Imperial Moscow Society of Naturalists.
Vipera renardi bashkirovi was named after Ivan Sergeyevich Bashkirov (1900-1980), Russian zoologist who discovered the steppe viper in the north Lower Volga region.
Vipera renardi puzanovi was named after Ivan Ivanovich Puzanov (1885-1971), famous Russian zoologist who studied the fauna of the Crimea. 
References
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