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I was in a discussion with several others about the name Dendroaspis Polylepis. We all know that Dendroaspis means "tree asp", but what does Polylepis mean? Nobody had a clue and I scoured the internet and couldn't find anything anywhere. If anyone could maybe shed some light on this subject maybe the origin of the name and the translation as well. I have also seen it listed several places as (Polylepsis) I assume thats wrong because majority rules right? I'm sure this question will be a simple one to answer for whoever knows. Thank you very much in advance for any answers.

Celticvamp

It appears to be derived from Greek. Poly- means many, and -lepidus seem to mean scales. So, "many scales" or something similar. Perhaps it has a larger number of scale rows or ventrals than the other Dendroaspis sp? That's just speculation though, and please note that I don't know Greek, I just found the meaning of lepis through some online searching.

/Sundberg

As stated above, the literal translation is "many scales". A quick check of one of my texts shows that it basically has a higher scale count in every category given (upper lip, lower lip, mid body rows, subcaudals) than any of the other mambas, except for the upper lip count being in the same range as angusticeps. I would imagine that's where it comes from.