pit viper
3
8.0
- noun
- /pɪt ˈvaɪpər/
- Specialized
:
víbora de foseta
- One night, my little sister goes to get a drink of water, steps on a pit viper that was curled up under the bathroom sink.
- pit vipers such as rattlesnakes
- bitten by a pit viper
- kinds of pit vipers
Examples
-
The subfamily Crotalidae pit vipers includes rattlesnakes.
Blog text (24) -
When researchers measured the pit vipers' alleles at the screened sites, they were surprised to find they were all identical to the mother, with no evidence of a father.
Blog text (13) -
Resistant to the venom of pit vipers, they readily eat copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes.
Blog text (12) -
The discovery's story began in 2011, when Booth published a paper with Gordon Schuett outlining alternate reproductive strategies in pit vipers, including virgin birth.
Blog text (13) -
As a researcher of pit vipers, Booth had grown quite a collection of data from copperheads and cottonmouths with help from The Copperhead Institute in South Carolina and San Diego State University.
Blog text (13) -
The Eastern diamondback rattlesnake is a type of pit viper known for its distinctive diamond-patterned scales.
-
In the jungles of Central America, the fer-de-lance is one of the most feared pit vipers due to its potent venom.
-
Many pit vipers are recognized by the heat-sensing pits located between their eyes and nostrils.
How Venomous
- South African
3
8.7
- US
42
4.1
- Specialized
3
8.0
- US
5
8.5
- US
4
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is compositionally a type of viper characterized by a 'pit', so a learner who knows 'pit' and 'viper' can infer it’s a kind of snake associated with a pit feature. However, the relevant sense of 'pit' (a small heat-sensing facial depression) is specialized and not the common 'hole in the ground' sense, so the precise biological meaning is not fully predictable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The name pit viper comes from the small heat-sensing pits on each side of the snake's head and the word viper, which means a 'venomous snake'. These pits help the snake find warm animals in the dark, so the name describes a 'venomous snake with heat pits'.