Australasian Journal of Herpetology 47:3-31. Published 9 July 2020. Before they get wiped out! Formal descriptions of 15 new species of Monitor Lizard in the Euprepiosaurus (AKA Varanus) indicus (Daudin, 1802) and the Shireenhosersaurea (AKA Varanus) prasinus (Schlegel, 1839) species groups. LSIDURN:LSID:ZOOBANK.ORG:PUB:80127B71-87E4-4384-87AE-004BF1C934C0 RAYMOND T. HOSER LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:author:F9D74EB5-CFB5-49A0-8C7C-9F993B8504AE 488 Park Road, Park Orchards, Victoria, 3134, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9812 3322 Fax: 9812 3355 E-mail: snakeman (at) snakeman.com.au Received 28 May 2020, Accepted 5 July 2020, Published 9 July 2020. ABSTRACT The Mangrove Monitor “Varanus indicus” (Daudin, 1802) and Green Monitor “Varanus prasinus” (Schlegel, 1839) were each long thought of as being single widespread species sensu Cogger et al. (1983) within the genus Varanus Merrem, 1820. In 2013, Hoser resurrected the name Euprepiosaurus Fitzinger, 1843 as a full genus for the Tupinambis indicus Daudin, 1802 species group, excluding Varanus indicus spinulosus Mertens, 1941, in turn placed in the genus Oxysaurus Hoser, 2013 and the group including Monitor prasinus Schlegel, 1839, was placed in the new genus Shireenhosersaurea Hoser, 2013. A group known as the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves, did via Kaiser et al. (2013) falsely accuse Hoser of “taxonomic vandalism”. They then themselves committed a despicable act of taxonomic vandalism when via Bucklitsch, Böhme and Koch, (2016) they illegally coined new names in the PRINO (peer reviewed in name only) onlne journal Zootaxa for exactly the same genera. Lifting material directly from the Hoser (2013) paper, Bucklitsch et al. coined unlawful new names, Solomonsaurus and Hapturosaurus for the same genera in order to clutter zoology with unnecessary objective synonyms. As of 2020 about 17 distinctive forms previously associated with the putative taxon Euprepiosaurus indicus are widely recognized within herpetology as being separate species and have been formally named. Following an audit of the species complex, this paper formally names twelve other hitherto unnamed forms from Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands as new species on the basis of morphological and reproductive divergence from the 17 forms currently as of 2020 recognized as species. In terms of the genus Shireenhosersaurea. three populations of putative S. prasinus (Schlegel, 1839) are also formally named for the first time. This makes 12 recognized species in the genus. All species within the genera Oxysaurus and Shireenhosersaurea are probably in decline and some may be in imminent danger of extinction. Formally naming new species is the critically important first step in their conservation as outlined by Hoser (2019a, 2019b). Keywords: Herpetology; taxonomy; nomenclature; Varanidae; Varanus; Euprepiosaurus; Oxysaurus; Shireenhosersaurea; taxonomic vandalism; Hapturosaurus; Solomonsaurus; Monitor Lizards; Mangrove monitors; New Guinea; Australia; Solomon Islands; Papua; ICZN; indicus; jobiensis; doreanus; finschi; semotus; spinulosus; prasinus; new species; oxyi; adelynhoserae; jackyhoserae; lenhoseri; matteoae; elfakhariorum; allengreeri; dorisioi; paulwoolfi; sloppi; powi; scottgranti; shireenhoserae; satis; clara
