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Varanus flavescens (HARDWICKE & GRAY, 1827)

IUCN Red List - Varanus flavescens - Least Concern, LR
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Higher TaxaVaranidae, Platynota, Varanoidea, Anguimorpha, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Yellow Monitor
G: Gelbwaran 
SynonymMonitor flavescens HARDWICKE & GRAY 1827: 226
Varanus russelii HEYDEN 1830: 23
Varanus picquotii DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1836: 485
Monitor exanthematicus indicus SCHLEGEL 1844 (not Tupinambis indicus DAUDIN, 1802 = Varanus indicus)
Varanus flavescens — CANTOR 1847: 634
Varanus flavescens — GÜNTHER 1864: 65
Varanus flavescens — BOULENGER 1885: 309
Varanus (Empagusia) flavescens — MERTENS 1942
Varanus flavescens — TAYLOR 1963: 924
Varanus (Empagusia) flavescens — VISSER 1985
Varanus flavescens — DE LISLE 1996: 123
Varanus flavescens — AST 2001
Varanus flavescens — VISSER in PIANKA & KING 2004: 179
Varanus (Empagusia) flavescens — KOCH et al. 2013
Varanus (Empagusia) flavescens — BUCKLITSCH et al. 2016: 50 
DistributionFlood plains of Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers of Pakistan, India (Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa = Odisha), Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh.

Type locality: “India".  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: iconotype in Hardwicke (1829 or later, see comment)
Syntypes: MNHN-RA 8339 (Va 5) [8239], MNHN 2181 (Va 5/2) [2881], and MNHN 6727 [picquotii] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (2182 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDistribution: Has been reported from Thailand (Trang) by BOULENGER (cited in TAYLOR 1963), but is not listed for this country by later authors such as CHAN-ARD et al. 1999.

Types: Hardwicke and Gray’s (1827) description of Monitor flavescens was based on a drawing. According to De Lisle (2009), the “iconotype” of V. flavescens was depicted on plates 60 and 61 in Hardwicke’s (1829) “Illustrations of Indian Zoology.” This work, however, was published by Gray as a series between 1830 and 1835 (Wheeler 1998). For M. flavescens, Mertens (1942) referred to plate 67 in the second part (1834) of this work, which probably represents the “iconotype” of this taxon [Koch et al. 2013]. 
References
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