Context: Recently, Meghalaya, the land of the mythical evil spirit that takes the form of a giant serpent called U Thlen, has yielded a new-to-science, venomous green snake.

• Trimeresurus Mayaae, a new species of snake has been discovered at Umroi Military Station in the Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya.
• Locally it is known as U Thlen, it is believed to be a malevolent and evil spirit that takes the form of a huge, man-eating snake.

About Trimeresurus Mayaae

• In Mizoram the snake is named Maya’s pit viper in honour of the late mother of Col Yashpal Singh Rathee, Maya.
• A new cryptic species of a green pit viper is described from northeast India, based on specimens collected from the state of Mizoram and Meghalaya.
• The new species is a member of the subgenus Viridovipera and is sister to Trimeresurus medoensis based on molecular data for mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, whereas resembles Trimeresurus Gumprecht

A species of the genus Trimeresurus, characterized by

• hemipenes are short and strongly spinose
• body green in both males and females
• interstitial skin black
• moderate size, with a maximum total length of 750mm

These snake species are responsible for the majority of snake bites in India.

Significance

• In a country where around 1.2 million people have lost their lives owing to snakebite and many more have lost their limbs in the last two decades; a discovery of a new venomous snake means a lot in the context of public health.
• Venom is a complex protein, mostly typical to a species and thus unravelling a new species will help understanding its venom and its impact on human life.