Dumeril's monitor is a member of the Varanidae

Varanidae

Varanidae is a group of lizards of the superfamily Varanoidea. The family is a group of carnivorous lizards which includes the largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon, and the crocodile monitor. Varanidae contains the living genus Varanus and a number of extinct taxa...

 family found in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. It is found in southern Burma and north of the Isthmus of Kra to Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi ) is a town in the west of Thailand and the capital of Kanchanaburi province. In 2006 it had a population of 31,327...

 Province in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. Varanus dumerilii is also found in peninsular Malaysia, throughout Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, Riou

Riou

Riou is a common family name from Brittany, western Europe.Riou may refer to:Last name* Édouard Riou, a Breton painter* Edward Riou, British Royal Navy officer* Rémy Riou, French footballer* Rudy Riou, French footballer...

 and other smaller islands of Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Their habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 is dense evergreen forests with high humidity and mangrove swamps

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

. They were more common in the pet trade in the 20th century, but are rarer now.

Diet

Dumeril's monitors is a crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

 specialist; however, they will also eat snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, molluscs, fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

s, and smaller rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

s. Little is known overall about this species compared to other monitor lizards.

Description

Adult Dumeril's monitors are largely dark coffee-brown in colour, with occasional brighter indistinct crossways bars. For juveniles the colors and patterns are quite different. "The major color is a dark varnish black which is interrupted by several yellow crossways bars on the back." Juveniles have shiny orange red or, sometimes yellow heads. This youth coloration disappears again after only 4–8 weeks.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

:

• Varanus dumerilii dumerilii (Schlegel, 1839)
• Varanus dumerilii heteropholis (Boulenger, 1892)

Note: Sprackland made V. d. heteropholis a synonym of V. d. dumerilii

Further reading

• Photo of Dumeril's Monitor at Whozoo.org
• Amer, Sayed A. M. and Yoshinori Kumazawa. (2008). Timing of a mtDNA gene rearrangement and intercontinental dispersal of varanid lizards. Genes Genet. Syst. 83: 275–280
• Auffenberg, W.
  Walter Auffenberg
  Walter Auffenberg was an American herpetologist who spent almost 40 years in field research, studying reptile and amphibian paleontology and the systematics and biology of numerous reptile species, including alligators and Komodo dragons.-Early life:...
  
  (1988). Gray's monitor lizard. University of Florida, Gainesville.
• Ávalos, J. de & Martínez Carrión, P. (1997). Warane Reptilia (Münster) 2 (5): 16-21
• Barbour, T. (1921). Aquatic skinks and arboreal monitors. Copeia 1921 (1):42-44.
• Boulenger, G.A. (1885). Catalogue of lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 2.
• Brandenberg, T. (1983). Monitors in the Indo-Australian Archipelago. 1-121. E.J. Brill, Leide.
• Coburn, J. (1987). Snakes and lizards. Their care and breeding in captivity, David and Charles, Newton Abbott.
• Cota, M.; Chan-ard, T.; Mekchai, S. & Laoteaw, S. (2008). Geographical Distribution, Instinctive Feeding Behavior and Report of Nocturnal Activity of Varanus dumerilii in Thailand. Biawak 2 (4): 152-158
• Cox, Merel J.; Van Dijk, Peter Paul; Jarujin Nabhitabhata & Thirakhupt,Kumthorn (1998). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Ralph Curtis Publishing, 144 pp.
• Davis, R., Darling, R. & Darlington, A. (1986) Herpet. Rev.17(4):85-86. Ritualised Combat in captive V.dumerilli.
• Davis, R.B. & Phillips, L.G. (1991). Herp. Review 22(1):18-19. A method of sexing Dumeril's monitor, Varanus dumerili.
• Harrison, J.L. & Boo-Liat,L. (1957). Monitors of Malaya. Malay. Nat. J. 12 (1):1-10.
• Horn, H.G. & Schulz, B. (1977). Varanus dumerilii, wie ihn nicht jeder kennt. Das Aquarium 11 (9):37-38.
• Krebs, U. (1979). Der Dumeril-Waran (Varanus dumerilii), ein spezialisierter Krabbenfresser? Salamandra 15 (3):146-157.
• Lekagul, B. (1969). Monitors of Thailand. Conservation News of S.E. Asia. 8:31-32
• Losos, J.B. & Greene,H.W. (1988). Ecological and evolutionary implications of diet in monitor lizards. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 35:379-407.
• Mertens, R. (1942). Die Familie der Waranae (Varanidae). Abh. Senck. Nat. Gesel. Abh. 462; 465; 466.
• Nutphand, W. NO DATE. The monitors of Thailand. Mitphadung Publishing Office, Bangkok.
• Pitman, C.R.S. (1962). More snake and lizard predators of birds. Bull. British Ornith. Club. 82 (3):45-55.
• Radford, L. & Payne,F.L. (1989). The reproduction and management of Varanus dumerilii. International Zoo Yearbook 28:153-155.
• Raven, H.C. 1946. Predators eating green turtle eggs in the East Indies. Copeia 1946 (1):48.
• De ROOIJ, N. 1915. The reptiles of the Indo-Australian archipelago. E.J. Brill, Leiden.
• Smith, M. (1922). Reptiles and batrachians. Journal of the Federated Malay States 10:269.
• Smith, H.C. (1930). Monitor lizards of Burma. Journal Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 34:367-373.
• Taylor, E.H. (1963). Lizards of Thailand. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 44 (14).
• Sprackland, R. 1976. Notes on Dumeril's monitor lizard Varanus dumerili (Schlegel). Sarawak. Mus. J. 24 (45):287-291.
• Sprackland, R.G. In Press.The taxonomic status of the monitor lizard Varanus dumerilii heteropholis BOULENGER 1892. Sarawak Museum Journal.