The white-throated monitor (Varanus albigularis albigularis) is a lizard found in southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. They are usually gray-brown with yellowish or white markings, and can reach up to 2 meters in length.
It is found in Southern Africa, northwards to Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

, Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

 and Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

.

Taxonomy

First described by François Marie Daudin

François Marie Daudin

François Marie Daudin was a French zoologist.With legs paralyzed by childhood disease, he studied of physics and natural history, but ended up being devoted to the latter.Daudin wrote in 1799–1800...

 in 1802, these lizards were previously classed as a subspecies of Varanus exanthematicus

Savannah monitor

The savanna monitor is a species of monitor lizard native to Africa. The species is known as Bosc's monitor in Europe, since French scientist Louis Bosc first described the species...

, but have since been declared a distinct species based upon differences in hemipenal

Hemipenis

A hemipenis is one of a pair of intromittent organs of male squamates .Hemipenes are usually held inverted, within the body, and are everted for reproduction via erectile tissue, much like that in the human penis. Only one is used at a time, and some evidence indicates males alternate use between...

 morphology

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

. The generic

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 name Varanus is derived from the Arabic word waral ورل, which is translated to English as "monitor". Their specific

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 name comes from a compound of two Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 words: albus meaning "white" and gula meaning "throat".

External links

• White-throated monitor, Oakland Zoo
  Oakland Zoo
  Oakland Zoo, in the past known as the Knowland Zoo, is a zoo located in southeastern Oakland, California, United States. Oakland Zoo is relatively small for a city of its size, but it contains modern exhibits. Most of its animals are kept in relatively "natural" habitats, and expanded natural...
  
  
• White-throated monitor lizards, Honolulu Zoo
  Honolulu Zoo
  The Honolulu Zoo is a zoo located in Queen Kapiolani Park in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. It is the only zoo in the United States to be established by grants made by a sovereign monarch, and is built on part of the royal Queen Kapiolani Park. The Honolulu Zoo now features over 1,230 animals in...