The Ceram mangrove monitor (''Varanus cerambonensis'') 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 one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species. About 80 species are recogn ...
s found in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. Specifically, it is found on some of the central
Moluccan Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
including:
Ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...
,
Seram
Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent is ...
,
Obi #REDIRECT Obi {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous title ...
,
Buru
Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon and Seram islands. The island belongs to Ma ...
, and
Banda. On Ambon and probably on
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
''V. cerambonensis'' occurs
sympatric
In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...
ally with ''
Varanus indicus
The mangrove monitor, mangrove goanna, or Western Pacific monitor lizard (''Varanus indicus'') is a member of the monitor lizard family with a large distribution from northern Australia and New Guinea to the Moluccas and Solomon Islands. It grows ...
''. It is in the indicus species group of the
subgenus
In biology, a subgenus (plural: 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 t ...
''Euprepiosaurus.''
Description
The Ceram mangrove monitor has a total length is up to , making it smaller than most monitor lizards. Its nostrils are situated nearer to tip of its long
snout
A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is c ...
than to its
eyes. Its tail is compressed with a double keel on top and is quite prehensile. They are very adept at swimming however they are more closer related to tree monitors as they are known to be found within low-lying rainforests, often in close proximity to streams. The dorsal ground coloration Appears dark Blue to black, with many scattered large and small yellow spots, which are arranged to form cross bands. The belly is yellowish-white. The tongue color is dark from a distance but light up close. They are very wary of people and are not commonly kept as pets. Field observations of
V. cerambonensis have been scarce, and little has been published on its
natural history and occurrence.
References
Further reading
Varanidae.org* Ast, Jennifer C. (2001). Mitochondrial DNA Evidence and Evolution in Varanoidea (Squamata). Cladistics 17 (3): 211-226
rratum in 18 (1):125* Philipp, K. M., W. Böhme & T. Ziegler (1999). The identity of Varanus indicus: Redefinition and description of a sibling species coexisting at the type locality (Sauria: Varanidae: Varanus indicus group). Spixiana 22 (3): 273-287
* Philipp,K.M.; Ziegler, T. & Böhme, W. (2007). Preliminary Investigations of the Natural Diet of Six Monitor Lizard Species of the Varanus (Euprepiosaurus) indicus Group. Mertensiella 16: 336-345
* 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
* 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
* 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
Varanus
Reptiles of Indonesia
Reptiles described in 1999
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