The golden-spotted tree monitor (''Varanus boehmei)'', also known
commonly as the golden speckled tree monitor, is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
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 ...
in the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Varanidae
The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea and order Anguimorpha. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, includes the living genus '' Varanus'' and a number of extinct genera more closely related ...
. The 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
Waigeo Island
Waigeo is an Islands of Indonesia, island in Southwest Papua, the Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, bet ...
in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
.
Etymology
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''boehmei'', is in honor of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
herpetologist
Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...
Wolfgang Böhme
Wolfgang Böhme (born 17 December 1949) is an East Germany, East German former Team handball, handball player who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics.
He was born in Wolfen, Germany, Wolfen. He was the husband of Ute Rührold, but they are now d ...
.
[ Beolens B, Watkins M, ]Grayson M
Grayson may refer to:
Places Canada
* Grayson, Saskatchewan
* Rural Municipality of Grayson No. 184, Saskatchewan
United States
* Grayson, California
* Grayson, Georgia
** Grayson High School
* Grayson, Kentucky
* Grayson, Louisiana
* Gray ...
(2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Varanus boehmei'', p. 30).
Geographic range and habitat
''V. boehmei'' is native to the
forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
s of
Waigeo
Waigeo is an island in the Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the nort ...
, Indonesia.
Behavior
The golden-spotted tree monitor has a
prehensile tail
A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has Adaptation (biology), adapted to grasp or hold objects. Fully Prehensility, prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and ...
, and it spends most of its life in trees.
Description
''V. boehmei'' grows to around in total length (including tail).
Reproduction
''V. boehmei'' is
oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...
.
[ www.reptile-database.org.]
References
Further reading
*
Bucklitsch Y,
Böhme W,
Koch A (2016). "Scale Morphology and Micro-Structure of Monitor Lizards (Squamata: Varanidae: ''Varanus spp''.) and their Allies: Implications for Systematics, Ecology, and Conservation". ''Zootaxa'' 4153: 001–192.
*
Jacobs HJ (2003). "A further new emerald tree monitor lizard of the ''Varanus prasinus'' species group from Waigeo, West Irian (Squamata: Sauria: Varanidae)". ''Salamandra'' 39 (2): 65–74. (''Varanus boehmei'', new species).
*
Ziegler T,
Schmitz A, Koch A, Böhme W (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.
Varanus
Lizards of Asia
Fauna of Southeast Asia
Reptiles of Indonesia
Reptiles described in 2003
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