The most commonly bred locality for albigularis come from Tanzania, i.e. black-throat monitors, which come in colors ranging from brown w/ brick-red facial/head colors, black banding, yellow spotting on feet and back; The more southerly cape have more brown banding coloration, do not get as big as Tanzanian/equatorial forms; the more northern Ethiopian types are much darker, having fewer ocelli, and have more yellow around the face and fore-legs markings. On Tanzanian types the dorsal bands may alsmost touch on the ventral side, where all of them have a light yellow cream color belloy coloration.



There are pocket locations of albigularis, that have been imported only once that I know of from central Africa, that are brown all over, with a darker chocolate brown neck/nape bandings and almost no ocelli on back - these are very habitat restrictive, and were described some 75 years ago in obscure literature. There is a captive group of albino albigularis in Uganda I know of, and a single specimen from Egypt that has alot of yellow upon it, and is the single northern most verified locality for this species in Africa.



Within any clutch of albigularis, you can get alot of variation on the theme, with head size, color pattern (which can/does change w/age), and body length/tail length ratios, that allow natural selection work...

cheers,

mbayless

[ Hide Replies ]

• Black throats color morphs - Bulldawger, Tue Jul 8 19:22:39 2003
• RE: Black throats color morphs - JimM, Tue Jul 8 19:29:54 2003
• Dan is one of two who breed blackthroats.. - SHvar, Tue Jul 8 21:40:34 2003
• RE: Black throats color morphs - mkbay, Wed Jul 9 04:05:33 2003