Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anybody good with taxonomy of the gouldii / panoptes complex? I bought an Argus under the name V. gouldii horni from East Bay Viv. I've heard of V. panoptes horni and V. gouldii and am also aware that people tend to use sub names frivolously, interchangably. is there any surefire way to tell what kind of monitor i have?

I find the taxonomy confusing too.

As far as I understand
v.panoptes horni is an argus
v.gouldii is a Gould's monitor
v.flavirufus is a Sand monitor

The Goulds and Argus look pretty radically different, nothing alike. The shape of the head is totally different, kind of like confusing a blue tail with a peach throat. I have it from good authority that the Sand monitors are just as different, but I haven't got any.... yet. The crosses just complicate it more.

Gould's monitor

Argus monitor

--Robert

But I will admit, I can't see a difference, color aside.
They both look triangle headed, and hungry.
D.

I guess it is something you really need to see in person to understand. It is funny that I see people referencing the huge forelegs of argus as indicative of them being burrowers, because the gould's have much slighter proportions, and they will out burrow an argus any day, at least from what I have seen. They (Gould and Argus) are both cool monitors.

--Robert

Hi, in this case, the books are a bit silly. They indeed mucked up the situation. Some are close, and some are really off. Also, the pics are often mislabeled, very often. Even one species will be called up to three different monitors in one book. Yes, you have good reason to be confused.

Remember, people name monitors, that does not mean a thing to the monitors, only to the people. Monitors know who and what they are, they are not confused. People on the other hand are in a constant state of confusion. People name them in order to be of utitility or use. That is, they names are suppose to be universal, accurate, and show relationships. At this time varanid nomenclature does non of that, but stick around it will change, hopefully. I mean it will change, no doubt about that, but the question is, will it be accurate or of use.

In reality, there are many kinds of V.panoptes, V.gouldi and several kinds of both V.flavirufus and rosenburgi. This has been a big problem. Also, no one seems to want to go and do an actual field study. The problem is, they are australian, and that country does not allow(sort of) the needless taking of reptiles. The result of that is, there are not lots and lots of preserved specimens. Most taxonomic work is done with those.

But never mind that. If the last four or five inches(adult) of the tail has banding, like the rest of the tail, its an argus. If that part of the tail is yellow or whitish, with no bands it could be goulds, flavirufus or a cross.

If you show a pic, we could guess. Thanks F