2008年11月30日 星期日

[Article] 昆特氏巨蜥 - 產自摩鹿加群島哈馬后拉島的新物種

這篇文章寫得很妙, 摘要從頭到尾寫了一堆就是不提新種的種小名是什麼, 還要看了文章才知道叫Varanus rainerguentheri (獻名給柏林自然史博物館的Dr. Rainer Günther. 另外看這篇文章的時候想到一個問題, 所有的巨蜥科動物不是都是CITES的管制物種嗎? 這個新種的正模標本(holotype)抓到的時候不是活跳跳還拍了幾張照片嗎? 為什麼後來變成舌頭伸出來的標本呢? 是因為養死了? 還是為了做標本的需求而把這個個體殺死呢? 如果是因為後面的理由而把這個標本殺死, 聽起來是一件很怪的事. 國際動物命名規約其實並沒有規定標本一定要是死的, 或是模式標本在物種被描述發表時一定要是死的 (那人類Homo sapiens怎麼辦? 是林奈還活著的時候指定自己為模式標本所發表的). 另外這個期刊的引用也要留意. pdf版上方所印出來的是柏林自然史博物館館刊的德文名, 可是在Wiley InterScience上所顯示的卻是新的英名Zoosystematics and Evolution. 這點是引用時要多加留意的.

A new species of the Varanus indicus group (Squamata, Varanidae) from Halmahera Island, Moluccas: morphological and molecular evidence

Thomas Ziegler1 *, Wolfgang Böhme2, Andreas Schmitz3

1 AG Zoologischer Garten Köln, Riehler Straße 173, 50735 Köln, Germany
2 Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany
3 Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, Department of Herpetology and Ichthyology, C.P. 6434, 1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland

email: Thomas Ziegler (tziegler@zoo-koeln.de)

Abstract We describe a new species of Varanus from the Moluccan island of Halmahera, based on a preserved male and a juvenile specimen. The new species is assignable to the V. indicus group of the varanid subgenus Euprepiosaurus Fitzinger, by molecular and genital morphological characters. The new species is characterized by the following combination of characters: habitus relatively stoutly built, without swollen parietal region, but with relatively blunt snout tip in the larger specimen; dorsum greyish, with transversal rows of blackish ocelli with yellow centres; blackish temporal band, framed below by a light stripe; ventral side cream to greyish, with a dark network or transversal stripe pattern, but with light centre of throat; tongue pink-coloured, with greyish tips and bifurcation area as well as a longitudinal dark pigmented middle stripe running above and below the first half of the tongue; tail with transversal ocellate pattern; tail shape roundish only in its first eighth to tenth, then with well differentiated double keel on dorsal ridge; 138-139 midbody scale rows; 130-136 transverse rows of dorsal scales from hind margin of tympanum to beginning of hind legs; hemipenis with asymmetrical sulcus spermaticus, and paryphasma rows that stretch only towards the outer lobe. The new species is the eleventh species of the V. indicus group that furthermore consists of the species V. caerulivirens, V. cerambonensis, V. doreanus, V. finschi, V. indicus, V. jobiensis, V. juxtindicus, V. melinus, V. yuwonoi, and V. zugorum. The existence of V. indicus s. str. and of V. doreanus on Halmahera Island, i.e. besides the new species, V. caerulivirens, V. salvator, V. yuwonoi, and V. zugorum, must still be verified. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)