[9][10] The specific name, ocellatus, is a reference to the distinctive series of "eye-spots" (ocelli) which runs the length of the body.

[11] It is found in West Africa in Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, southern Niger, and Nigeria.

[3][12] Sexually mature females lay between 6 and 20 eggs, usually at the end of the dry season in February to March.

It's responsible for more fatalities than all other African snakes combined, its venom is a compound of Procoagulants, anticoagulants, hemorraghins, nephrotoxins and necrotoxins, symptoms of their bites include local pain, swelling, bleeding necrosis and disfigurement which may result in amputation.

Systemic symptoms include coagulopathy, hemorraghes, shock, renal failure and blindness.