subspecies?

Boywithscalez · Member Joined: Jul 08, 2005 Posts: 18

Are there different subspecies of red Tegu? I was on a site and it said they had a paraguya red tegu, then i see that there are argentine reds. Are thes different locals of red tegu smaller species? are there differences in the locals?

tegulevi · Respected Member Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 489

i have a red female that i suspect of being paraguay, she is muck darker in color on her back with a more red belly. i dont know that they are any smaller. she is 2yrs old and 3 feet long. other than a darker color i havent really found a difference from my arg. male

tupinambis · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:

There has not been enough studies on these animals to determine yet if there is any basis for subspecies. Each species appears to display a high degree of polymorphism, with T.merianae showing the greatest variability, but currently, about the best "true" distinction is geographic origin, and even these are often under suspicion. Just because someone says it's Paraguayan, doesn't mean that it actually is, or that it is any significantly different than an Argentinian. Currently, these are basically rather meaningless terms being utilized by hobbyists to try and impose some meaning. If you knew the actual source (ie. I know for a FACT that my tegus are Brazilian because that is where I collected them or bred them) that would be one thing, but having worked in the pet trade for a decade I can tell you that just because the supplier says its from someplace (or that it is some species/subspecies) doesn't mean it actually is. A lot of countries have bans on dealing animals, but neighboring countries don't, so there is often a lot of smuggling or simply re-classifying of animals just to make a buck.

ElliotJasChief · Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:43 am Post subject:

I absolutely back up tupinambis. From what I have seen...calling a tegu...red or otherwise "paraguayan" is just a way to teg on an extra 50$ to the price tag.

_________________
Elliot

1.2.0 blues
1.0.0 red
0.2.0 family

...and way too many fish

alex · Valued Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 106

Also, if you look at other species, there's not a lot of basis for classifying subspecies based on colour pattern in regional variants, as it's often not as consistent as people claim and the use of DNA sequencing allows better evidence of breeding within the overall population (or not, as the case may be).

tegulevi · Respected Member Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 489

nobody ever told me my girl was paraguayan but she looks to me like pics i have seen of others online. but who knows

elchupaneebrae · Member Joined: Dec 14, 2004 Posts: 70

this oen time, i was gonna buy a paraguyan, but the pet store never got them.....boy was i dissapointed
-chris

drfish · Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:18 am Post subject:

Mine was sold as Paraguayan

And from what I can see, he is the same as Paraguayan's on the net, although I have also seen them called Chocoan.

nogard · Member Joined: Dec 11, 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Mesa, AZ

I think that chacoan is the "white headed tegu" and is just the same as a normal argentine black and white, as tupinambis said they are very variable in color and pattern, and I have seen at a store in phoenix,AZ they had a regular old argetine black and white for sale as a parguayan tegu for $300 bucks it may have been less or more this was about two years ago, I have also seen them on the kingsnake classifieds(arg b/w) for sale as forest monitors.....wow that is truly special, a monitor from south america....absolutley amazing, the price was only $450 plus shipping of course. 90% of this hobby is about just making a dollar, and karma doesnt go around fairly like it should, people will still get ripped off and the same companies will keep ripping them off.
thanks
tony butler

tupinambis · Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:29 pm Post subject:

Actually, I think if any morph would be attributed with the Chacoan region of South America, it would likely be what everyone is calling the blues, not the white-headed tegus. Dark headed, black-nosed forms predominate in the interior, northern and wetter regions, while the lighter colours predominate in the cerrado and coastal regions (as far as I've been told).