In the half century that has passed since the day of the 

 discovery of the largest of contemporary lizards, the giant Indo- 

 nesian monitor lizard ( Varanus komodoensis Ouwens ) , this relict 

 reptile has repeatedly attracted the attention of zoologists 

 (Burden, 1927, 1928; Dunn, 1927; Mertens, 1930, 1959; Tanzer and 

 Heurn, 1938; Lederer, 1942; de Jong, 1944; Hoogerwerf , 1948, 

 1954, 1958; Pfeffer, 1959; and others). However, despite the 

 investigations carried out, the basic question of the biology 

 of the giant monitor, including propagation, postembryonic growth, 

 and population dynamics, are all still in the initial stage of 

 study. 



The materials collected by the authors in July and August, 

 1962, at the time of the work of the First Indonesian-Soviet 

 Expedition on the islands of Komodo, Padar, and Rintja in the 

 Lesser Sundas Archipelago, have served as the basis for the present 

 work, which supplements the information in a number of areas of 

 the biology of the monitor lizard. The authors express gratitude 

 to all their 'comrades in the work, who took part in the collection 

 of the materials used by the authors. In general form, some 

 of the results of the investigations made by the expedition have 

 been published earlier (Darevskii and Maleev, 1963). 



Propagation and postembryonic growth 



The data in the literature on the propagation of the giant 

 monitor are based exclusively on observations of the animals in 

 captivity. 



For the purpose of clarifying the actual breeding periods of 

 the monitors in nature, at the time of work on the Komodo [dragon] 

 we dissected two sexually mature males, 157 and 238 cm. long, and 

 a female, 171 cm. in length, the gonads of which have been subjected 

 to microscopic study. (The microscopic investigation of the gonads 

 has been done by V. N. Kulikova of the Institute of Cytology of 

 the Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.) For both males, dissected 

 August 3 and August 5, the testes were found in a state of rest, 

 being loose, wrinkled bodies 4 cm. and 6 cm. in length. Micro- 

 scopic study revealed small ducts, chiefly in initial stages of 

 spermatogenesis, passing in the walls and complete cut-off of 

 production of mature spermatozoa, which were also lacking in the 

 collapsed appendages of the testes. Judging from the state of the 



