Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I haven't posted on this forum for several years, but noticed there are still a few familiar names on here.

Yesterday I came home to find my female Bells phase Lace Monitor pacing the cage and scratching at the nest site. She looked like she'd lost weight, so I assumed she had laid her eggs that I had been anticipating. The confusing aspect was that she was still digging at her nest site. I actually watched her dig a small burrow.

Upon digging up the nest site, I found a good sized clutch of 8 eggs. They all looked ok (pic attached), but were a bit sunken in. The thing that concerned me was that the temperature of the medium where they were laid ranged from 34-35.5 degrees Celcius. This seemed very hot and the air temperature had reached 40C that day.

I'm wondering if the reason the female appeared distressed and was digging was because she was worried the nest site was too hot? I'm actually thinking she may have been digging down to the nest site, that she'd previously filled in, to allow more air flow and let the eggs cool down? Does anyone have any opinions on wether the eggs are likely to be ok after having reached temperatures of up to 36C? I actually think they were laid the day before I found the, so they were probably at these temps for a good proportion of the day that I uncovered them.

This clutch is from a Bells mated with a Bells, so I'm interested to see what proportion of Bells hatch out. I haven't heard of breeding results from this type of pairing before.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Matt

Congrats on the eggs. I have had lacie eggs that hot without a problem, also on the other end, down to 60F without problem.

Heck once a female laid some in the sun on a hot summer day, they shrivelled up and still hatched. Lacie eggs are magic.

They are also the only eggs the ants do not bother.

I believe a fella in australia bred, bells to bells, last year and they all came out bells. I think hes originally from germany. I forget his name. I have a pic somewhere but its not mine and I should not post it.

But heres a pic of a very lite lacie I hatched. She is a young adult now and getting liter all the time. The brown is from leaflitter and will shed off. Enjoy FR

Wow! Beautiful! Were either of the parents light like that? Have you gotten any others that light? What a spectacular monitor!

Could either of you explain for me the 'Bell' designation? Is this a 'line' or a location, or a breeder? How are they different from other lacies?

Thanks,
Leslie

Hi Leslie, A Bells phase is a color pattern type, that occurs naturally, in southern Queensland and northern NSW's. They occur from the central to the east coast.

They are thickly banded. Most are not so nice looking, but the ones that are nice, are extremely appealling.

There have been a few in the States, not the real nice ones, but at this time I do not know of any here.

Its kinda like an "alterna" phase Blairs kingsnake. Reduced pattern, thickened dark bands, more contrast and bicolor.

In the base part of their range, they are a fairly high percentage of the population, in other areas they are a low percentage of the population. Which means, both normals and Bell's, occur together in all parts where Bells occur.

The trickery here is, lacies, V.varius, is highly variable, hence the name. There is a wide varity of colors and patterns thu out their range. The Bell's phase is very distint. Its thought to be a recessive. As indicated in the post, they have rarely been bred in captivity so the actual genetics is unknown. FR

Thank you! I may never have the space or the money for a Lacie, but the more I know, the better. I have a facination for color genetics in general (horse color genetics, in particular), so discussions of varied color patterns by locality is of great interest. It is amazing, that with common ranges, the separate pattern types still are distinct in the monitors. With horses (in the wild), color patterns in isolated habitat areas run to rather genetically similar, in many cases recessive, coloration, like the Kiger Pass mustangs, where there is a predominance of dun, buckskin and guilla color patterns, all of which require a specific dilution gene. These are very primative color patterns that, for the most part, were not common in domestic horses until people started to specifically breed for it.

Leslie

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the advice and reassurance. The eggs are still looking good and filling out slightly, so I'm quite hopeful.

That's an interesting looking lacie you've got there. It'll be interesting to see what she produces down the line.

I'd be interested to know if you remember who it was that bred bells x bells. A German-Australian sounds like it could be Peter Krauss, but last time I spoke to him he didn't know of any bells x bells pairings.

Leslie,

Attached is a pic of the female Bells who laid the eggs. As Frank pointed out, it a genetic variant of the Lace Monitor. No ones totally sure of the pattern of inheritance, but I think it may be a simple Dominant trait. Years back people thought that female Bells didn't exist and that it was a sex-linked trait that only expressed itself in males. That's been shown to be false.

Matt

This female redefines my beauty standards in varanids, when looking at her I am overwhelmed with a worm serene feeling, the kind you get from enjoying a nice sun-set.
Nature sure is beautiful
Many thanks!

thats a real beauty Matt,here in the US we have the tucson form,keep us posted on your eggs.

Beautiful monitor! If you are correct that it is a direct dominant, you sure should have some beautiful hatchlings out of the pairing. Hopefully, the eggs will do well. Would love to see what they look like as hatchlings.

Leslie