monitor, (family Varanidae), any lizard of the genera Varanus or Lanthanotus in the family Varanidae. About 50 species of Varanus are recognized in the subfamily Varaninae. Most have an elongated head and neck, a relatively heavy body, a long tail, and well-developed legs. Their tongues are long, forked, and snakelike. They are found in Africa south of the Sahara, through southern and southeastern Asia, in Australia, and on islands in the southwestern Pacific.
The smallest monitor attains a full length of only 20 cm (8 inches); however, several species grow to great size and length. Examples of large monitor species include the Komodo dragon (V. komodoensis) of Indonesia, the largest of all lizards, which grows to a length of 3 metres (10 feet); the two-banded, or water, monitor (V. salvator) of Southeast Asia, which grows to 2.7 metres (9 feet); the perentie (V. giganteus) of central Australia, which grows to 2.4 metres (8 feet); and V. bitatawa of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, which grows to 2.0 metres (about 7 feet). Partial fossils of Megalania prisca, an extinct Australian monitor that lived during the Pleistocene Epoch, suggest that it exceeded 7 metres (23 feet) in length and likely weighed nearly 600 kg (about 1,300 pounds).
All Varanus species except V. bitatawa and V. olivaceus (another monitor found on Luzon) are carnivorous and often consume large insects and spiders, other lizards, small mammals, and birds. V. komodoensis is known to capture much larger prey such as water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). V. olivaceus eats fruits in addition to animal prey, whereas V. bitatawa appears to subsist primarily on fruit.
The earless monitor (L. borneensis), a rare and little-known lizard native to Borneo, is the only species in the subfamily Lanthanotinae. It too is elongate with a relatively long neck, but the limbs are small. It grows to a length of 40 cm (16 inches).