Hi Wulf,

On the derivation of the generic names of Morelia and Liasis et al, I think they may have a basis in classical mythology.

John Edward Gray has been criticised as being responsible for the creation of a number of "meaningless" names in his taxonomic works. I am not so sure about this. Gray was a great scholar in the classical sense, and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find that some of his confusing generic names are actually derived from classical mythology. As for Morelia, well from memory, I think MORELIA may be associated with CERBERUS of Greek mythology. I can’t recall now, but I think MORELIA was either a little known ugly brother of CERBERUS, or perhaps the name of one of the ugly heads. Don’t go rushing off to check your books on Greek Mythology though, unless they are from the 19th century or earlier. Modern works on mythology are mostly incomplete derivatives of these earlier works and are not of much help with the more obscure deities and myths I have found.

On the derivation of LIASIS, well it could be possibly derived from LI who was a powerful deity from a creation myth of China and was one of the grandsons of the Sky God Zhuan Xu. It was the function LI to help separate the sky from the earth, and so stop the world from degenerating into chaos. Given the taxonomic history of the genus LIASIS, I think LI must have been sleeping on the job.

An interesting Gray name, the subgenus LISALIA – is possibly derived from LISA, which is part of a complex creation myth of the FON people of Benin involving twin pairs of Gods. LISA was a supreme being in the form of a Sun God that controlled the day. LISA, along with its twin MAWU, the Moon Goddess and controller of the night, formed part of the body of a gigantic rainbow serpent (AIDO-HWEDO) that supported the heavens.

As for his subgenus SIMALIA, I think I have figured it out, but I’ll leave that one to you guys to look up…



Richard Wells

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