Glad you joined in, FR, so we can discuss this and others can learn from it.



In response to your queries, here's a rough outline of lace monitor range with the tropical part indicated in red.



If we were to discuss your lace monitors, FR, based on pattern and colouration my guess is that your founder stock came from the blue/purple bit. Your original male, George, would have been from somewhere near the Brisbane area (around half way down the range) and your original female, Gracie, from somewhere in southern NSW (around three quarters of the way down).



FR: So to me, your saying your Southern lacies may be termite nesters, but surely they are not obligate termite mound nesters. Not as a species or even your local Lacies.



I wouldn't say that, as I happen to think the local lacies are obligate termite mound nesters. Winters here are too cool for the eggs to survive otherwise.



FR: I asked you this question many years ago, How many lacies lay eggs each and every year, in their whole range? how many lacie nests have been recorded? To make it simple, there are tens of thousands of lacies nesting yearly, yet only a handful of mound nests have been discovered.



You know, FR, you've never actually asked me that question. I'm aware that you've posted a number of times that you had and that my response was 'eight'. I don't know where you'd got that number from, but if it was from me it was likely in response to an entirely different question, for I would never have responded that the total number of termite mound nests ever found was eight.



That aside, and in answer to your question, the number of lace monitor nests found in termite mounds would be in the hundreds, if not thousands. Keep in mind that it isn't just herpers that see them, but some zoos with large bird collections remove chunks of mounds to feed termites to their small birds and farmers occasionally knock mounds over when clearing land. I've just recently learned that in parts of Queensland, farmers are meant to have reptile aware observers on hand when removing mounds, in case there are nests within. The eggs are usually taken to a particular vet that's into reptiles for later release.



By comparison, the number of reliable reports of lace monitors nesting in situations other than within a termite mound currently stands at 0 (zero).



FR:The reality is, many individual monitors lay eggs in termite mounds, for the reasons you mentioned. But those monitors also nest in many other ways as well..



Actually, until proven otherwise, the reality is that they nest in termite mounds. Even if other examples are found, those lace monitors will be the outliers, displaying an uncommon behaviour. If one were to talk about what this species 'does', it would be nesting in termite mounds. In other words, if someone were to join the forum today and have reliable proof of a wild lace monitor nesting elsewhere, the numbers would then be thousands in termite mounds to one elsewhere.



FR: yet only a handful of mound nests have been discovered. Consider, termite mound nests leave a taletail scare, so they are identifiable.



Yes.

























I have dozens of photographs like these but only a few uploaded onto my photo hosting site at the moment. Some of these are test digs into dead termite mounds, others are fresh digs into live termite mounds. For the latter one just needs to know where to look and at what time of year. In a good year a healthy termite colony will repair the hole pretty quickly, but it is still identifiable if one knows what one is looking for.

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