The Rennell Island monitor (''Varanus juxtindicus'') is a species of
monitor lizard
Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and West African Nile monitor, one species is also found in south America as an invasive species. A ...
s found in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
. It is also known as the Hakoi monitor.
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It belongs to the subgenus
In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.
In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...
''Euprepiosaurus'' along with the canopy goanna, the peach-throated monitor, Kalabeck's monitor, and others.
Distribution
This species is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to Rennell Island
Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the nation state of Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of and is about long and wide. It is ...
, one of the smaller of the Solomon Islands. It is especially found near Niupani.
Description
The Rennell Island monitor can reach a length of up to 150 cm from snout to tail
The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
. The pattern and coloration on its back are very similar to ''V. indicus'', but this species is distinguished from the other members of the subgenus ''Euprepiosaurus'' by the lack of blue coloration (see '' Varanus yuwonoi'' and '' Varanus doreanus''). Its tail shows no bands, nor is there a visible band on the side of the head. The throat of ''V. juxtindicus'' lacks a noticeable pattern. Its tongue only has pigment at the tip. The first third of its tail is round in diameter, without any keel. "
References
Further reading
* Böhme W.; Philipp, K. & Ziegler T. (2002). Another new member of the Varanus (Euprepiosaurus) indicus group (Sauria: Varanidae): an undescribed species from Rennell Island, Solomon Islands. Salamandra 38 (1): 15-26.
* Böhme, W. 2003. Checklist of the living monitor lizards of the world (family Varanidae). Zool. Verhand., Leiden 341: 6-43.
* Koch A, Arida E, Schmitz A, Böhme W, Ziegler T. (2009). Refining the polytypic species concept of mangrove monitors (Squamata: Varanus indicus group): a new cryptic species from the Talaud Islands, Indonesia, reveals the underestimated diversity of Indo-Australian monitor lizards. Australian Journal of Zoology 57(1): 29-40
* McCoy, M. (1980). Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. Wau Ecology Institute Handbook 7. Wau Ecology Institute, Wau, Papua New Guinea.
* Ziegler, T., Schmitz, A., Koch, A. & W. Böhme (2007). A review of the subgenus Euprepiosaurus of Varanus (Squamata: Varanidae): morphological and molecular phylogeny, distribution and zoogeography, with an identification key for the members of the V. indicus and the V. prasinus species groups. Zootaxa 1472: 1-28
* Ziegler, Thomas; Wolfgang Böhme, Andreas Schmitz 2007. A new species of the Varanus indicus group (Squamata, Varanidae) from Halmahera Island, Moluccas: morphological and molecular evidence. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin 83 (S1): 109-119
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3008781
Varanus
Reptiles described in 2002
Reptiles of the Solomon Islands
Rennell and Bellona Islands