Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been quite awhile since I've visted these forums but when I was here, I never read or heard anything about this new "Micro" or "Tru Blackthroat". When did this come about and from what I can gather these actually grow to around the same size as traditional BT's. Reason I ask is because I had a male WT that was 4.5ft long that was from one of the breeders on here that I bought from as a hatchling that appears to have similar markings/pattern as these "Micros".

The old classifications had V. albigularis in a few different subspecies breakdowns (V.a. angolensis, V.a. microstictus or V.a.ionidesi and V.a.a. etc). This was because they were thought to occupy specific ranges and habitats distinctly and have physical differences more than patterns on their backs and faces and 'worthy' of being named subspecies. Even in Varanoid Lizards of the World 2004 the author is suspect of subspecies saying "There are three suggested subspecies..." Newer current research says that each type can be found in various places and they do NOT follow a locality map as once thought. They now call all of them simplyV. albigularis, but trade names or common names still say things like "cape banded whitethroat, blackthroat, ionidesi etc etc..." to describe the back patterns and face markings better. While I agree that there are clearly 2 forms out there, they apparently are here and there and don't follow any distinct population.

7'2" Shaquille O'Neil and 4'2" Tattoo from Fantasy Island may superficially look like different species to an alien but they are both Homo sapiens in reality.

http://www.maggiemaggie.com/files/page0_blog_entry6_1.jpg
http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/30/24/splashnews_nrfl240307d_03.0.0.0x0.333x500.jpeg

Do you have a link or something to this "new WT subspecies"?

Nothing new, same old species, subspecies, etc. Sometimes people get lazy and call them micros, instead of microstictus. Although most of whats being called microstictus are far from it.
Pete Z had some great examples on his website, and aside from a few pictures from Canada the "so called micros" I saw were not microstictus at all.
The owners are suffering from wishful thinking syndrome, they have a blackthroat (ionidesi) or an albigularis albigularis and wish its a microstictus because there are few of them in the pet trade in comparison.

Heres an almost 7ft "shaq" in female, she came from a real breeder, not a retailer calling themselves a breeder.
This is actually an older picture of her now (a few years old at least).
Thats a 4ft flaviargus staring back at her from inside of the cage.

I cant find the pictures now but her much older uncle was just over 4ft, he was more cape banded WT than Sobek was (she had more of the BT in her physical makeup), although she had more cape banded WT in her breeding.
BTs (ionidesi) get huge, some types of albigularis stay smaller, some get bigger.
The physical possibilities for a BT male are over 6-7ft long.
Ive had a few that were 4.5-5ft in a year or less from hatchling size, or 4-5ft in a few months alone from recieving them at 2-3ft long.
I even had a cape banded WT that was over 9 years old that was given to me at 3ft long, in 3 months he was just over 4ft long.

Ah, I see.Was just curious because when I left it was generally thought of that there were three subspecies, BT's, WT's, and Cape-banded WT's and they were all called Albigs for general purposes. Assuming that still holds true then today. And yeah, I remember that Cape-Banded WT you got from someone that passed away, Shadow or Blaze, cant remember, but it was a fine looking animal. Good to see Sobek's still doing well and still growing I see, last I was here she was around 6'3" so she's grown quite a bit since then.

Heres a few pics of my guy before I had to give him up. Dont think there was ever a time he wasn't shedding. I had had him for around 3 years and he was around 4.2ft long. Also whats up with all the WT's in the trade market now? They used to pretty rare to see and now it seems like they've become more standard as the BT's were/are. Pro-Exotics should be selling their annual BT's soon right?

There are a few subspecies, and has been this way for many years.
The V.A.abigularis covers all WTs including the cape banded WT.
The V.A.ionidesi is the Tanzanian BT.
The V.A.microstictus is a WT that resembles the Tanzanian WT, only has black and grayish markings with smaller spots in most cases rather than larger spots. Pete Zupich had some great picture examples on his old website years ago.