Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I recently acquired a group of Green Tress. While I was inspecting them, they each everted. This of course left me with the impression that they were all male. Not having worked with this species before I wanted to check with some of the more experienced keepers and see if it was possible that females could also perform some kind of evertion? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! Craig

I'm not sure if you have ever checked this site out but Bob who runs it has some great info on there. Its treemonitors.com
The female can evert her hemiclitoris during defication so you can't sex by just having an everting.
The only way to know if it is a hemipenis that you see, and not a hemiclitoris is the presence of a flower-like tip that only male copulatory organs have.

you can read all about it on Bob's great site here
http://treemonitors.com/sexidentification.htm

Congrats on your /v. Prasinus I myself have a pair and love them If you get time post a few pictures I love seeing this beautiful animal. my pair are pictures a few posts down

Treemonitors.com

If there is one thing that I have learned over the years in this hobby(now an 'industry'), it is to question the sexing abilities and techniques of dealers. I myself have been burned multiple times in the past by receiving incorrectly sexed individuals(snakes as well as varanids), and have also seen both friends and fellow online forum participants sustain the same misfortune and disappointment.

Through gaining an understanding of the diagnostic characters to look out for when visually-sexing tree monitors, I have become comfortable for the most part in my ability to sex tree monitors through photos(photos which offer what I am looking for). Of course nothing is perfect, and the techniques which I have used and gathered over the years are by no means 100% accurate(I have an individual in my collection that I've had for over a year, which has been pulling me back and forth from male to female to male to female! I am still unsure of its sex).

I have found that you can gain a better idea of an animal's sex by combining multiple characters and approaches which help reinforce your inferences. I no longer go by what the dealer has told me, or labeled a particular animal as. By doing so, I have been able to acquire female monitors which were mistakingly sold as males, for a fraction of the cost of what a female of the same species would have cost, I might add.

When purchasing new animals, I always demand photographs from the seller, so that I can judge the sex of the animal/s for myself, as well as scope out the physical condition of the animal. If a dealer or seller cannot provide the photos you demand, then that seller is not worth forking over the thousand or so dollars to. At such a high dollar value, the dealer should be shining your shoes, providng all of the ammenities requested in ordr to ensure his sale. Tree monitors do not have the customer base that green anoles or red headed agamas have- most dealers have to "work" for their money with these high dollar animals.

Back to sex determination... Some characters which I have found to be helpful in distinguishing between the sexes in tree monitors, include intersexual differences in cranial and jaw morphologies. I have also found that many of the same characters can also be used with other varanid complexes/sub-genera as well, including Varanus, Soterosaurus, Odatria, and Euprepiosaurus.

The skulls of male tree monitors are typically broader than females, and are usually larger in proportion to the body. Females have relatively slender heads, and when resting next to a male conspecific, it is usually easy to notice a distinguishable difference between the two.

With jaw structure, I have been led on to notice that there usually exists noticeable differences in the morphology of the dentary bone(lower jawbone). In females, this bone is typically linear(for the most part), and stretches from the front of the rostrum straight back to the ear, with very little or no bending or curvature to the lower jaw. Males on the other hand usually have a rather pronounced curve, or bend to their lower jaw, which breaks up the linearity of the dentary bone, as seen in females.

Other potentially diagnostic characters may include the angulation and prominance of the nares(nares are larger in males), the shape of the tailbase(in cross section), and behaviors.

While I must admit that such noticeable differences to not become apparent and noticeable overnight, with time and through close, watchful observation, these differences begin to stand out.

If you are having difficulty determining the sex of your V. prasinus, post some pictures here on this forum, and I'm sure several of us participants will gladly offer our thoughts and rationales for our inferences.

Good luck, it's always great to meet another tree monitor enthusiast. Cheers,

Bob
Sex Identification in the V. prasinus complex

Hi Guys,

Thanks a ton for the heads-up on Bob's site and thanks for all the information Bob. Your site is an amazing resource. Hats off to you. I will try and get some photos up soon. Thanks to you guys I now realize my group is not all male...LOL! Thanks again.

Best regards,

Craig