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Dendroaspis polylepis GÜNTHER, 1864

IUCN Red List - Dendroaspis polylepis - Least Concern, LC

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Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Black Mamba
G: Schwarze Mamba 
SynonymDendraspis polylepis GÜNTHER 1864: 310
Dendraspis antinorii PETERS 1873
Dendraspis angusticeps BOULENGER 1896: 437
Dendraspis mamba GOUGH 1908
Dendraspis mamba — FITZSIMONS 1912
Dendraspis angusticeps — LOVERIDGE 1936: 42 ?
Dendroaspis polylepis polylepis — LOVERIDGE 1955
Dendroaspis polylepis antinorii — SPAWLS 1978
Dendroaspis polylepis — AUERBACH 1987: 201
Dendroaspis polylepis polylepis — WELCH 1994: 55
Dendroaspis polylepis antinori — WELCH 1994: 55
Dendroaspis polylepis — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 24
Dendroaspis polylepis —TRAPE & MANEÉ 2006
Dendroaspis polylepis — TRAPE & BALDÉ 2014
Dendroaspis polylepis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 223
Dendroaspis polylepis — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 564
Dendroaspis Polulepis — ICLEI 2023 (in error) 
DistributionAngola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Senegal, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon (Adamaoua [HR 35: 191]), Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of South Africa (Eastern Cape etc.), Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, N/S Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Zambia, Zimbabwe, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Sudan (Jumhūriyyat)

antinori: Somalia, Ethiopia, NE Uganda, N Kenya; Type locality: Ansaba = Anseba, Eritrea, Ethiopia.

Type locality: Zambezi River, Mozambique.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.20.53 (orig. BMNH 1864.6.28.15), skin of an 1829 mm specimen (J. Kirk).
Holotype: MSNG 31016 [antinorii] 
Diagnosis 
CommentVenomous! Peptides from the black mamba (mambalgins), are not toxic in mice but show a potent analgesic effect upon central and peripheral injection that can be as strong as morphine (Diochot et al. 2012).

Synonymy: Most authors list antinorii as synonym (e.g. BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991, Golay 1993, Largen 1997)

Distribution: not in Mali fide Trape & Mané 2017.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
References
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