Crotalus basiliscus - Mexican west coast rattlesnake

Meaning
In Greek basiliskos stands for "king"

English name
Mexican west coast rattlesnake

Distribution
Crotalus basiliscus is found, like its name, along the western coast of Mexico. This species generally appears to be found below 1000 m but in the southern part of its range it can be found near sea level and well up into the mountains of Sierra de Coalcomán, Michoacán at 2225 m and Cerro Barolosa at 2400 m.

Habitat
Thorn forest (dry dense scrub-like vegetation), tropical deciduous forest, which is dominated by moderate height trees, and the cross-over zone between tropical deciduous, and pine oak forest.

Description
This is one of the largest rattlesnake species, individuals exceeding 150 cm are not rare, and the maximum size reported is 204.5 m (Klauber 1972) but in captivity they are known to grow larger.
The overall ground color is olive green or yellowish brown, the larger snakes tend to have a greenish cast, whereas juveniles are more reddish brown. In both juveniles and adults the diamond shaped dorsal blotches tend to be reddish brown with paler centers and borders. With age these blotches fade somewhat. Large specimens have a prominent vertebral ridge shaped by their high neural spines. Not as profound as by C. simus and C. durissus.
The flat, triangular head usually has a paler color then the body, and indistinct dark pattern are present on young snakes, but this usually disappears in adults except for a few dark scales that remain. A dark postocular stripe of about 3 scales wide is present behind and below the eye. The tail is gray with a series of 5 to 12 darker bands.
Like most color/patrnes of this snake they all tend to fade with age into a uniformly color with a few light and dark scales.

Diet
Feeds mostly on mammals, like rats and rabbits.

Venom
C. basiliscus has a fairly large venom yield. The effect of the venom are not known, but probably similar to that of C. molossus.

Extra
C. basiliscus is known to hybridize with C. molossus especially in the lowlands of Alamos, and individuals from southern Sonora resemble C. molossus so closely by scale as hemipenes that full determination is not always possible.