REPTILIA: SAURIA: SQUAMATA: LACERTILIA

Family VARANIDAE

Monitors / Goannas / Leguaans / Biwaks

 
Skull of a monitor lizard. Bones in color are the 
dentary (yellow), squamosal (red) and quadrate 
(green). Photo by Dr. R. G. Sprackland. Map (below) showing emigration of varanids from Asia into Australasia during the Pleistocene.

Genus Varanus Merrem, 1820

Monitor lizards.

Varanus is Latinized from the Arabic "ouran," a large lizard.

Genus Varanus

(Click on underlined species names for species accounts)

V. acanthurus   spiny-tailed monitor

V. albigularis   Whitethroat monitor

V. auffenbergi   Blue Timor monitor

V. baritji   White's monitor

V. beccarii   Black tree monitor

V. bengalensis    Bengal monitor

V. bogerti

V. caudolineatus

V. caerulivirens  

V. ceramboensis

V. doreanus  Bluetailed monitor

V. dumerilii    Duméril's monitor

V. eremius   Stripe-tailed monitor

V. exanthematicus   Savanna monitor

V. flavescens   Gold monitor

V. gilleni   Pygmy mulga monitor

V. giganteus   Perentie

V. glauerti  Glauert's monitor

V. glebopalma  Long-tailed monitor

V. gouldii  Gould's monitor/sand monitor

V. griseus  Desert monitor

V. indicus*   Mangrove monitor

V. insulanicus

V. jobiensis  Peachthroat monitor

V. kingorum

V. komodoensis  Komodo dragon

V. melinus   Yellow monitor

V. mertensi Mertens' water monitor

V. mitchelli

V. nebulosus  Indian/cloudy monitor

V. niloticus  Nile montor

V. ocellatus

V. olivaceus  Gray's monitor

V. ornatus

V. panoptes  Argus monitor

V. prasinus Green tree/emerald monitor

V. primordius

V. rosenbergi  Heath monitor

V. rudicollis  Roughnecked monitor

V. salvadorii Tree crocodile monitor

V. salvator  Water monitor

V. scalaris  Spotted tree monitor

V. semiremex  Rusty monitor

V. similis

V. spenceri   Spencer's monitor

V. storri  Storr's monitor

V. teriae  Canopy monitor

V. telenesetes

V. timorensis  Timor monitor

V. tristis tristis Black-headed/mourning monitor 

V. tristis orientalis  Spotted monitor

V. varius  Lace monitor

V. yemenensis  Yemeni monitor

V. yuwonoi Tricolored monitor