Chinese order name: Serpentiaceae
Chinese family name: Viperidae
Chinese genus name: Mangshan Branded Ironhead
Chinese common name: No Chinese common name
Latin name: Ermia mangshanensis
English name: No content
Species namer and age: : Mangshan Nature Reserve, Yizhang County, Hunan Province, China. p> Species nomenclator and date: Zhao, 1990
Species information: venomous snake up to 2 m in length, with tube teeth. Body black-brown, interspersed with very small yellow-green or rust-colored dots, forming a fine reticulated impression; dorsal scales partly yellow-green, gathered in clusters, forming lichen-like spots, equidistant from black-brown, running longitudinally across the tail of the body; left and right lichen-like spots meet in the dorsal midline, forming a complete transverse stripe or slightly staggered anteriorly and posteriorly. Ventral surface, in addition to the aforementioned black-brown with reticulation, is also interspersed with a number of larger, slightly triangular, yellowish-green spots. The dorsum of the head is blackish brown with typical yellowish-green markings. The posterior half of the tail is a uniform pale yellowish green or nearly white. The head is large, triangular, and distinct from the nape. There are buccal fossae. The dorsum of the head is covered with small scales, the larger pair of inter-nasal scales being tangential to each other. Middle dorsal scales in 25 rows, all angulate except the outermost row on both sides; ventral scales 187～198; anal scales complete; subcaudal scales 60～67 pairs, tail laterally compressed with flat cut ends. Endemic to China. Currently only known to occur in a narrow area of a few thousand hectares in the Mangshan Nature Reserve in Yizhang County, Hunan Province, China. It is found in the undergrowth of mountainous areas at an altitude of 700-1100 m. It lays 20-27 eggs in late June and July, which are white and oval in shape, with a diameter of 34-38 mm × 50-66 mm and a weight of 31-40 g. The parent snakes have the habit of guarding and incubating the eggs after they are laid. Under the temperature of 25°～30℃, the snake will hatch out in about 60 days, and the first hatchling is 330～460mm in length and weighs 15～35g.