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<< Notifications of 1997

Notification to the Parties

No. 964 Geneva, 7 March 1997

CONCERNING:

Recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee

1. The Nomenclature Committee met during the 13th meeting of the Animals Committee, in Pruhonice, Czech Republic, September 1996, to discuss, at the request of the Secretariat, amongst other issues, the taxonomic status of Tupinambis spp. and the Varanus indicus complex, taking into account that no standard reference to the names of lizards has been adopted by the Parties to CITES.

2. Having analyzed the concern raised by Argentina, Paraguay and the United States of America regarding the exports of Tupinambis species, the Nomenclature Committee agreed to recommend the adoption of Cei, José M. (1993) Reptiles del Noroeste, Nordeste y Este de la Argentina - Herpetofauna de las Selvas Subtropicales, Puna y Pampa, in Monografie XIV, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Italy, as the preferred nomenclatural reference for species of Tupinambis from Argentina and Paraguay.

3. Consequently, export permits from Argentina and Paraguay relating to Tupinambis should refer to the species, i.e. Tupinambis teguixin and/or Tupinambis rufescens.

4. Regarding the Varanus indicus complex, the Nomenclature Committee endorsed a report prepared by the checklist staff at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This report recognizes four species in this complex: V. indicus (Daudin, 1802), V. doreanus (Meyer, 1941), V. spinulosus Mertens, 1941 and V. jobiensis Ahl, 1932.

5. The report referred to in point 4 considers Varanus indicus kalabeck as a synonym of Varanus indicus. Therefore CITES documents should refer to the latter and not to Varanus kalabeck.