There seems to be some misunderstanding with some folks, and one group in particular on this subject.
Some confuse a Pet trade name with a scientific name. The reality is, these are totally different names, for totally different uses.
A Trade name is for use with us here on this forum, we are the trade. We also use scientific names. To us, trade names are more discriptive, as they may be a local morph, as in the thread below or a color morph, or simply a bloodline.
Bloodlines are often named for the person who bred them, or is selling them. Like Pro exotics or Rare Earth Red ackies. In reality, I was the originater of both those, but recently, they were the parties selling them. So they earned that right. You see, thats what the TRADE does. Again, this is not about scientific nomenclature.
In the thread that was mostly and rightfully deleted. I was questioned about "Yellow ackies" and Top enders. The way I was questioned was very naive, and showed a complete lack of understanding on the subject. Which is how arguements get started. Lets look at those.
Yellow ackies are a from of ackie that occurs from Alice springs(thereabouts) eastward to a little east of cloncurry. These animals are the central and easts southernmost type of ackie. Within this, there are Cloncurrys, which are drab pale animals. Yellow ackies Includes, Mt. Isas, which can cover a wide range of color types. Often including some striping on the neck, white going down the back around the center two rows of occeli. They can be brownish, reddesh, yellows, oranges, and peachy in base color. Tenent Creek types are not in the pet trade, they are not to different then some Mt.Isas, but more uniformly occelied and more reds and oranges. I have only seen a couple for just north of Alice, and they fell within what one would see in Mt. Isa.
Those animals appear to be V.a.brachyurus. I say appear, as its different in different books.
Topends are a bunch of locality morphs that occur north of Yellows. Across the topend(kinda lucky about that) They occur from Sir Edward Pellew Islands, and the mainland to the west and north. They occur across the topend and across the kimberlys in one form or another. Their characteristics include, Very striped necks, and various degrees of occeli disruption. Many of these characteristics are described in the Whites monitor. Which I include in the topender group. I also include Blackfaced monitors in this group, they occur in the western kimberlys and are a little different.
In W.A. the great Northern Highway, appears to be the cutoff line and includes intergrades between the monsoonal topenders and the desert dwelling Red ackies.
Of course we cannot discuss ackies without discussing the Red ackie group. Yes, they are also a group of many types. They are xeric types, except the ones on beach. Oh heck those beaches are dry beaches. hahahahahahaha
The Reds of course include members that are very very red in color, to super bright gold yellow, to drab in color. These are the most different in build, they have much more spiny tails, and bigger block like heads. And produce much larger eggs. Just to name a few differences.
Now lets compare all these types to the scientific names. Some books call the west coast animals V.a.a. Some call them, V.a.Brachyurus. Some books call topenders V.a.a. And others call them V.a.brachyurus. Of course Whites monitor is a different species, but in one key I read, discribed them as exactly like V.acanthurus, but different. But did not explain what was different. With that animal local is the only important piece of data. As Whites type monitors or monitors just like them, occur across the whole topend. It appears the striped neck type and Whites are a tiny bit more restricted to hills and rocky ranges, then other ackies.
When I first started messing with the topenders, I called them stripenecks for very obvious reasons. But sadly having stripenecks or extremely striped necks is as much individual as locality. So Stripe necked ackies are included in the tradename, topenders.
I hope some found that interesting. But all I wanted to point out was, There sadly can be more accuracy in some trade names, then some scientific names. And more consisitancy. As scientific names keep changing when the animals does not.
I would also like to point out that in the thread below, there was some whinging about pet trade animals and locals. As mentioned, F. Yowono(sp) brought forth many new monitors, and was followed by several exporters from Japan, and others. These new animals were presented in the Pet trade before science knew of them. This includes species that that person below keeps or has kept. They were brought to the trade with trade names, Yellow tree monitor(melinus) which was in error only that is was not a prasinus types. And tricolored monitors(males are indeed tricolored, no error there) Some of these were scientifically described before the real localities were devulged. While the person below is blaming the pet trade, that was a scientific error. Those biologists were in such competition to discribe new species, that they failed to research the animal and used the data givin to them. They did not verify their information. A SCIENTIFIC MISTAKE. Many times that data was second or third hand. And possibly a distrust of science caused the local folks to not tell of the real localities. That is commonplace. The fact is, its sciences task to investigate and find the real information, not take second hand information. That is clearly unscientific.
So to blame the pet trade is in total error. Also, if not for the pet trade, many of these new species would still be unknown and possible disappear before science ever knew of them. So I really do not understand the approach from below.
Back to the top, what Robyn did was perfectly fine, he did not attempt to assign a new scientific name, in fact, he did not mention any scientific name. All he did was share a different looking water monitor, with the local he was told. Which is perfectly acceptible for the pet trade. This is a place of the pet trade. Of course science should use their own rules and protocals for looking at that animal. And that has/had nothing to do with Robyn or what he posted.
But I guess some folks do not having any ability to think about context. So yes, stripenecks, albinos, local types, hets, anything that expresses some uniqueness, is acceptable in the pet trade. What science wants to do is really up to science and their current thinking(and boy does that change) Cheers
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