我国蝮属蛇类和尖吻蝮英文名称的建议

“Vipers“ is the English common name for more than 200 species of the family Viperidae. The so called “pit vipers“ is also the English common name for more than 150 species of the subfamily Crotalinae which have a “faclal pit“, an organ on each side of head which functions as a heat receptor. Of course, in countries where the people use English as the mother language there are English names for most snakes found in their own country. For example, the pit-viper species Agkistrodon contortrix is called “copperhead“, and Agkistrodon piscivorus is called “cottonmouth“ or “water moccasin“ in the USA. Also, another pit-viper, Agkistrodon bilineatus, is called “cantil“ by the people in Mexico and South America. In Japan, there has only one species belonging to the genus Glo3dius, i.e., Gloydius blornhoffii. According to its Japanese pronunciation, it has an English name by spelling of English alphabets as “mamushi“. Up to date, there are more than ten species recognized in the genus Gloydius. Among them , most are found in China. But there is no English common name especially for those species. After my detail studying, I certainly believe that there a Chinese word, “腹“ (according to Chinese pronunciation, it may be spelled by English alphabets as “Fu“) especially for the pit-viper species since 500 to 300 years B.C. During the following 2500 years, the snake name “Fu“ appeared in many ancient Chinese boaks dealing about dictionary (the “Ya“ course), drug boaks (Ben Cao), and even literature boaks or papers. So, the author of this paper used “腹“ as Chinese name for all the Gloydius species as well as for Deinagkistrodon acutus, because the latter was never included in the same genus. In this paper the author would suggest to use the English alphabet spelling “Fu“ plus “s“ (Fus) as an English name for the genus Gloydius, and “Fu “ as the English name of all the Gloydius species found in China and other places (excluding Gloydius blomhoffii found only in Japan, which still would keep its Japanese name “mamushi“). Besides, using “Sharp-snouted Fu“ as an English name of the genus Deinagkistrodon as well as species name of Deinagkistrodon acutus.

Suggestion of the English Names for Gloydius Species and Deinagkistrodon acutus