Russell's viper

Rus·sell's viper

noun \ˌrəs-əlz-\

Definition of RUSSELL'S VIPER

: a strikingly marked highly venomous snake of the genus Vipera (V. russellii) occurring in southeastern Asia—called also tic-polonga

Biographical Note for RUSSELL'S VIPER

Russell, Patrick (1727–1805), British physician and naturalist. For the first part of his career Russell was a physician in Aleppo, Syria, where he studied plague and other diseases. In the 1780s he traveled to India, and while employed as a naturalist for the East India Company, he made large collections of specimens and drawings of the plants, fishes, and reptiles of the country. From 1796 to 1809 the East India Company published his multivolume, illustrated work on the snakes of the Coromandel coast. In 1797 the naturalist George Shaw named Russell's viper in his honor.