The Gaboon adder or aptly named Butterfly viper (Bitis gabonica)
Photo by Thomas Eimermacher
With pinks and purples, beiges and browns this is truly a stunning snake to behold.
...and in leaves it amazing how well these colors and patterns provide camouflage.
Of all the snakes I have kept over the years (and there have been many hundreds) I have never had one of these.
They are rare, hard to find and require the correct permits to keep where I am from but the real reason I never mad the effort to acquire one for my reptile collection was the fact that they posses the longest fangs in the snake kingdom. Some over 2 inches... 5cm and a very decent venom to go along with that set of hypodermic needles.
I learned early on that keepers of snakes get bitten and so I never kept any deadly specimens for longer than was necessary.
There is an even larger sub-species that comes from West Africa and this is the one typically found in the pet trade.