Revised 23 Feb. 2023
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Erpetoichthys Smith 1865 erpeto-, presumably derived from herpetón (Gr. ἑρπετόν), creeping animal, reptile or snake, described as “almost serpent-like in its general aspect”; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish [Smith, wrongly believing Erpetoichthys was preoccupied, proposed an unnecessary replacement name in 1866, Calamoichthys, by which the genus is sometimes known, from calamus, Latin for reed, referring to its “cylindrical character”)

Erpetoichthys calabaricus Smith 1865 –icus (L.), belonging to: Old Calabar River, West Africa, type locality

Polypterus Lacepède 1803 polý (Gr. πολύ), many; pterón, from pterón (Gr. πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin, referring to multiple dorsal finlets instead of a single dorsal fin

Polypterus ansorgii Boulenger 1910 in honor of English explorer and collector William John Ansorge (1850–1913), who collected holotype

Polypterus bichir Lacepède 1803 from Abushir, its local Arabic name along the Nile River in Egypt (pronounced buh-sheer or bih-sheer)

Polypterus congicus Boulenger 1898 –icus (L.), belonging to: the Congo Basin (Stanley Falls), type locality

Polypterus delhezi Boulenger 1899 in honor of Belgian artist and naturalist Henri Paul Delhez (1870–1900), who collected holotype and provided life-history notes on bichirs based on interviews with locals; his collections and field observations were useful in the preparation of Boulenger’s six-volume work (1898–1900) on Congo fishes

Polypterus endlicherii Heckel 1847 in honor of Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher (1804–1849), who apparently discovered the species in the fish collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Polypterus mokelembembe Schliewen & Schäfer 2006 named for Mokele-mbembe, a mythological creature believed by some to be a sauropod dinosaur that survived the extinction of dinosaurs in the central Congo basin, alluding to the archaic nature of bichirs, which most likely are the sister group to the remaining Actinopterygii, and which probably existed at the same time as sauropods

Polypterus ornatipinnis Boulenger 1902 ornatus (L.), adorned or decorated; pinnis (scientific Neo-Latin), finned, referring to black spots on dorsal fin and black bars on pectoral, ventral, anal, and caudal fins

Polypterus palmas Ayres 1850 named for Cape Palmas, Liberia, type locality

Polypterus polli Gosse 1988 in honor of Belgian ichthyologist Max Poll (1908–1991), who proposed a name for this bichir in 1954 (P. palmas congicus, preoccupied by P. congicus) but did not describe it

Polypterus retropinnis Vaillant 1899 retro– (L.), back; pinnis (scientific Neo-Latin), finned, referring to origin of dorsal fin behind middle of body

Polypterus senegalus Cuvier 1829 –us (L.), adjectival suffix: Senegalese (described from Senegal)

Polypterus teugelsi Britz 2004 in honor of the late Guy Teugels (1954– 2003), Belgian ichthyologist and curator of fishes at the Musée Royale de l’Afrique Cenrale, for his “myriad influential contributions to the systematics of African freshwater fishes”

Polypterus weeksii Boulenger 1898 in honor of John Henry Weeks (1861–1924), British anthropologist and Baptist missionary, who collected holotype at his mission station in Monsembe, upper Congo River, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)