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Dendroaspis jamesoni (TRAILL, 1843)

IUCN Red List - Dendroaspis jamesoni - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Jameson’s (Green) Mamba
G: Jameson-Mamba 
SynonymElaps jamesoni TRAILL 1843: 53
Dendraspis angusticeps DUMÉRIL 1856: 558 (non SMITH)
Dendraphis jamesoni GÜNTHER 1858
Dendraspis welwitschii GÜNTHER 1865: 97
Dinophis fasciolatus FISCHER 1885: 111
Dendraspis jamesonii – BOETTGER 1888
Dendraspis welwitschii — GÜNTHER 1895: 529
Dendraspis jamesonii – BOULENGER 1896: 436
Dendraspis angusticeps — BOULENGER 1897: 280
Dendraspis neglectus BARBOZA DU BOCAGE 1903: 44
Dendroaspis jamesoni — SCHMIDT 1923: 131
Dendroaspis jamesoni jamesoni — LOVERIDGE 1936: 64
Dendroaspis jamesoni kaimosae LOVERIDGE 1936
Dendroaspis jamesonii jamesonii – MERTENS 1941: 280
Dendroaspis jamesoni kaimosae — PITMAN 1974
Dendroaspis jamesoni jamesoni — BROADLEY 1991: 527
Dendroaspis jamesoni — WELCH 1994: 55
Dendroaspis jamesoni — CHIRIO & INEICH 2006
Dendroaspis jamesoni kaimosae — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007
Dendroaspis jamesoni — WALLACH et al. 2014: 222
Dendroaspis jamesoni — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 562
Dendroaspis jamesonii — BEHANGANA et al. 2019
Dendroaspis jamesoni — PAUWELS & COLYN 2023 
DistributionGhana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea (DOUCET 1963), Gabon, Principé (Gulf of Guinea), Benin,
Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Zambia

kaimosae: W Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, adjacent Zaire; Type locality: Kaimosi Forest, near the Friends’ Africa Mission, kakamega district, Nyanza Province, Kenya Colony.

Type locality: „Südamerika"; corrected to “Westafrika” (MERTENS 1938: 49)  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesType: BMNH 1946.1.20.43 (and possibly additional specimens).
Holotype: MCZ 40743, paratypes: Nairobi Museum, USNM, FMNH 12822, 12839, 12840 (E. D. Heller, Belgian Congo Kivu Dist), 154737-8 (P. Leloup, Belgian Congo Kivu Sud), 214696 (J. A. Hart, Zaire Zone Irumu), 214699 (J. A. Hart, Zaire Zone Mambasa) [kaimosae] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (kaimosae): The Jameson's Mamba from the extreme eastern part of the range of this species is so strikingly different in coloration of both body and tail from the typical form that it merits a new name, more particularly as the difference is supported by a difference in scalation, viz. Subcaudals 94-104 2 (14 + 2 specimens); tail uniformly black; East Africa (Loveridge 1936: 64)


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CommentVenomous!

Synonymy (partly) after A. Schmitz (pers. comm.). Has been reported from Sao Tome but records neen confirmation (SCHÄTTI & LOUMONT 1992). Not in Benin fide ULLENBRUCH et al. 2010. Tolley et al. 2025 found no support to recognize kaimosae as a subspecies.

Distribution: For a map with localities in Equatorial Guinea see SÁNCHEZ-VIALAS et al. 2022 and Tolley et al. 2025 (Fig. 1).

Type species: Elaps jamesoni TRAILL 1843 is the type species of the genus Dendroaspis SCHLEGEL 1848.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Professor Robert Jameson (1774-1854), British mineralogist, geologist, and naturalist and later Regius Professor of Natural History, Edinburgh University (1804-1854).

D. j. kaimosae was named after its type locality in Kaimosi Forest (Kenya).

The genus was named after Greek dendron (δένδρον), tree + Greek aspis (ἀσπίς), asp, snake. [“…Zij is de eenige tot nog toe bekende vergiftige slang, die steeds op boomen leeft…“]. 
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