Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I am an Australian and I am interested on the validity of the records of this species (in the varanoid lizards of the world book).As well as the actual localities the animals were collected from.

Any ideas?

Regards,

Scott Eipper

Hi Scott,

The Australian specimen records for V. doreanus and V. finschii cited in the Varanoid Lizards species accounts are old. They are described in Ziegler, Philipp and Boehme (1999), Zoologische Abhandlungen Staatliches Museum fur Tierkunde, Dresden 50(17): 267-279 – guess what, in German. There are two juvenile V. finschii, collected in 1915 (preserved in Vienna), with the locality "Queensland", but nothing further. There is an adult V. doreanus, also an old specimen, preserved in Bonn, from "Northcoast, probably Cape York".

It is always advisable to view old specimen records with fuzzy locality data with a healthy dose of skepticism. Things were sometimes labelled according to where they were shipped from, rather than where they were collected, and Cooktown (FNQ) was a common staging area for people and goods going to and from British New Guinea from about 1890-1940. In some cases there are collectors' notes or travel itineraries that can help to resolve a question about actual locations. I don't know if Ziegler, Philipp or Boehme had access to additional information in leading them to place the locality points on those maps in Varanoid Lizards.

The only "new" information I can add is also a bit sketchy. About 9 months ago I saw two photographs of a juvenile V. doreanus (no question about the ID) that someone had recently caught somewhere on Cape York. That person was seeking to confirm the ID before publishing a note verifying the occurrence of V. doreanus in Qld, and he didn't share any details of where the animal was from (though Iron/McIlwraith ranges is a good guess). So, doreanus at least is in FNQ. I haven't seen indicus-group monitors on Cape York myself, but all those I have seen in the coastal NT have been V. indicus.

Sam Sweet