The original syntypes of M. bornmuelleri were collected in Lebanon at 1800 m (5,900 ft) and in the Bolkar mountains of western Turkey at 2200 m (7,200 ft) as described by Franz Werner in 1898.[7][8] In 1922, Werner restricted the type locality to Lebanon in his designation of his specimen as a lectotype,[9] and in 1938 separated out the southern varieties as a separate species (Daboia palaestinae).[10] In 1967 Mertens raised the name bornmuelleri to valid species rank for the Lebanese populations,[11] thus leaving the name xanthina for all Turkish populations, which arrangement was accepted by Baran in 1976,[12] and agreed with by Nilson and Andrén in their 1985 paper.[1][8]