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Pilbara Death Adder Acanthophis wellsi (Hoser 1989) DANGEROUSLY VENOMOUS
The Pilbara death adder is a small slender adder very similar in build to the desert death adder Acanthophis pyrrhus. A wellsi can be differentiated by having 19 mid body scales and has undivided prefrontal scales as apposed to A pyrrhus which has 21. There is however an isolated population of A wellsi at Cape range peninsula near Exmouth that do have divided prefrontals. The body scales on A wellsi are not as keeled as A pyrrhus. When viewed laterally there is a difference in head shape with A wellsi being of a more even roundness towards the nasal area or front of the head where as A pyrrhus is more arrow shaped. This head shape difference is quite obvious after comparing a few.
	There have been individuals found on the edge of their known range that have had strange scale counts or peculiarities. It is though, and likely in my view that these are actually hybrids of both A pyrrhus and A wellsi. Colouration varies, but typically they are a reddish body colour with about 40 faint bands of ether light red, yellow brown, and occasionally in rare hypermelanistic individuals black. The hypermelanistic forms usually show this pigmentation on their upper head scales and can look quite stunning. There are many specimens that display colour and patterning almost identical to A pyrrhus and I believe over the years a lot of reptile keepers without examining these a little closer have automatically assumed that that what they had seen or captured were A pyrrhus.
The distribution of this species to some degree remains uncertain and although generally confined to the Pilbara and a little further south I believe that in many cases amateur reptile enthusiasts have not correctly identified this adder in some areas. The temperament of this adder in the wild varies, with some individuals being rather docile and others, quite pugnacious. Being highly venomous and having an extremely fast strike makes this adder potentially dangerous and therefore they should be avoided. Some bite victims have shown very delayed on set of symptoms of up to 12 hours. Although severe envenomation could likely cause death, there have been no recorded fatalities.
	Generally speaking death adders are primarily ambush hunters lying in wait for passing prey which they attract by caudal luring. The caudal lure is a distinctive part of their tail ending that is wiggled to imitate an insect. They tend to do this with their lure at close proximately to their head for an easier target. Habitat The wellsi habitat is typically areas of stony based desert areas surrounded by rocky escarpments scattered throughout with spinifex from which they shelter. Diet Their diet consists of small lizards, frogs, and a particular favourite food item is the fat tailed gecko Diplodactylus conspicillatus.
Breeding This species has only rarely been bred in captivity. This is simply because at this point of time there are very few specimens in collections and not because they are more difficult to breed than any other adder. Mating in the wild occurs in the wild from about late December to the end of January. As with all adders they bear live young and this occurs in April to May. As far as offspring numbers for this species goes, of a total of 6 known litters, that I am aware of in captivity, the litter number has averaged out to be 8 with the minimum being 5 and the maximum from a huge female with a total body length of 540mm, being only 11. Based on this small sample size though, it would seem that they have smaller litter numbers than A. pyrrhus. If this assumption is true, it raises many questions i.e. in the wild do the young have the same mortality rate as other adder's species that have larger litters? Hatchlings that I have personally weighed have ranged in weight between 2 and 4 grams with the average being 2.7 gms.
Comments This is a death adder not commonly legally kept outside of W.A and besides the acquisition of specimens through scientific licenses here in W.A, it has in the past been next to impossible to legally collect this species straight from the wild. Fortunately however this species is now permitted to be collected by a few individuals who hold the appropriate collecting licenses issued and under strict control by the Department of Environment and Conservation D.E.C. for the sole purpose of fulfilling the needs of the pet industry. Hopefully, in the near future, many more elapid keepers will get to share and enjoy this species as they become more established throughout private collections. All native reptiles here in W.A remain protected under the W.A Wildlife Conservation Act (1950)
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