The external morphology of more than 1000 specimens of Vipera renardi (Christoph, 1861) from the Crimean peninsula and from the eastern and southern continental parts of Ukraine was examined and analyzed by statistical, multivariate methods. It turned out that, in contrast to central and northern Crimean as well as continental lowland populations, which correspond to the diagnosis of  V.  renardi,   the South Crimean, montane populations have lower scale counts. According to the results of the multivariate analysis, the latter populations form a separate group, the level of divergence from the former being comparable with subspecies or even species-level differences within the V. renardi complex. The populations most distinct from typical V. renardi (s. str.) are those from the northern macroslope of the main range of the Taurian ridge. Compared with typical V. renardi, the montane populations are characterized by smaller size, lower numbers of circumocular and supralabial shields, ventral plates, intercanthal, parafrontal and loreal shields, a lighter body colouration and a less frequent colour pattern with fragmented zig-zag bands. These morphological peculiarities together with the partly isolated distribution of the Crimean montane population suggest that their subspecific recognition may be warranted.

Objective. The vipers in the Vipera (Acridophaga) ursinii complex are small-sized insectivorous snakes found in parts of central and southern Europe. Subspecies include Vipera ursinii ursinii, Vipera ursinii moldavica, Vipera ursinii macrops, Vipera ursinii rakosiensis, and Vipera ursinii graeca and are commonly known as the meadow vipers. These are the least known European Vipera from a clinical point of view. Methods. We identified cases of V. ursinii envenomations through three methods, including literature search in PubMed, ISI web of Knowldge, JSTOR, Biological Abstracts, Zoological Record, using the various combination of the following terms: snakebite, envenoming, bite, venom, ursinii, meadow viper, steppe viper (in English, French, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Romanian), review of paper-based medical case records of hospitals in Hungary (four) and Romania (one) covering the 1970–July 2010 period, and personal communications of professional and amateur herpetologists studying V. ursinii and snake-handlers bitten by these snakes.
Results. We identified 64 cases from subspecies: V. u. ursinii (14), V. u. moldavica (8), V. u. macrops (5), and V. u. rakosiensis (37). Forty-five bites were collected from the literature, 5 from hospitals, 10 cases were communicated by seven herpetologists and four cases by two snake keepers. Bites were mostly asymptomatic. Forty-five envenomings (70%) resulted in mild and moderate local symptoms, involving pain with low-intensity, pruritus, numbness, swelling with or without erythema and/or local hematoma. Bullae (n=3, 5%), mild superficial necrosis (n=4, 6%), cellulitis (n=1, 2%), and moderately extended edema (n=8, 13%) of the bitten extremity rarely develop. Massive limb edema was recorded in eight (13%) cases. The most common systemic symptoms were dizziness caused by transient hypotension and tachycardia. Gastrointestinal disorders (i.e. nausea, vomiting) were rare (n=2, 3%) compared to other Vipera, and probably triggered only by anxiety. Symptomatic and supportive therapy was applied in the relatively severe envenomings and antivenom therapy in six cases. Complete recovery ranged from 12 h to 2 weeks. Moderate and severe envenomings required significantly longer recovery. Application of first aid was associated with significantly longer recovery times. Neither the age (i.e. juvenile or adult) of the culprit specimen, nor the anatomical location of the bite determined the severity of symptoms. Conclusion. Professional and amateur herpetologists, and snake keepers are mainly at risk. Most V. ursinii bites do not require first aid or medical intervention, since only local symptoms develop and resolve spontaneously. The rare hospitalized cases require symptomatic and supportive treatment only. Antivenom therapy is not indicated.

The last two populations of the Hungarian meadow viper Vipera ursinii rakosiensis were thought to persist in the steppe fragments of Hungary until meadow vipers were discovered in central Romania (Transylvania), suggesting a possible existence of remnant populations elsewhere. We assessed the phylogenetic position of the Transylvanian vipers using 2030 bp of mitochondrial DNA sequence.We showed that theywere closely related to the Hungarian vipers, while those from northeastern Romania (Moldavia) and Danube Delta belonged to the subspecies Vipera ursinii moldavica. Montane subspecies from Europe (Vipera ursinii ursinii and Vipera ursinii macrops) formed a sister clade to the two lowland subspecies. Vipera renardi formed a sister clade to V. ursinii, with populations from the Greater Caucasus (Vipera renardi lotievi) and Tien Shan (Vipera renardi tienshanica) as the sister group to Vipera renardi renardi, and Vipera renardi eriwanensis from the Lesser Caucasus as the most basal taxon in the species. Our results illustrate that the divergence between the lowland and montane populations occurred separately in each species and several times in V. renardi. We demonstrated that the recently discovered Transylvanian population is the third surviving population of V. u. rakosiensis and the only known population outside of Hungary.

Given are some morphological and osteological characteristics of the subsp. Vipera ursinii ebneri based on two exemplars collected in the mountains of Kazachstan. The aim of the present study was to complete the very brief original description of the subspecies