A while ago I wrote a two-part article on the herpetological stamps of Papua New Guinea
(O’Shea 2006a, b), the eastern half of the second largest island in the world. At the time I alluded to the fact that I planned to write occasional articles on the herpetological stamp issues of various countries and I hinted that the Solomon Islands might be next. It is, and here it is. As with the first PNG article I think a paragraph or two about the country in question might be a good starting point, to help you orientate yourselves. I am certain you have heard of the Solomon Islands, but could you stick a pin in them on the map?
Okay, you know where New Guinea is, that large island sprawling like a giant bird (or more apt for this publication, goanna) across the tropical sea, to the north of Australia.
Well, the Solomon Islands are the next country east, but it is not quite as simple as that and certainly not as simple or neighbourly as the BBC would have us believe. In the epic and spectacular recent six-part series “South Pacific” the narrator announced that the
Solomons were only 60miles (96kms) from New Guinea. Politically yes, geographically, no! Off the eastern coast of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea lie several archipelagos. In the southeast are the Trobriand, Louisiade and d'Entrecasteaux
Archipelagos, to the north-northeast lie the Admiralty Islands, and to the east lies the th
Bismarck Archipelago, including the large islands of New Britain (38 largest island in the rd world) and New Ireland (93 largest). Go further east, zoogeographically travelling into the Solomons region, and you will come to an elongate island stretching north-northwest th to south-southeast. This is Bougainville (79 largest), and to its north is the much smaller
Buka Island, the two being the main islands of North Solomons Province, of Papua New
Guinea – politically you are still in PNG.
But only 60miles (96kms) off the southern coast of Bougainville lie the tiny islands of
Shortlands and Fauro¹ and these are the northwestern-most islands of the some 922 rugged, jungle islands and coral-atolls, scattered across almost 1670kms of the Coral
Sea to the southeast, that make up the Republic of the Solomons Islands. The largest th th th th islands are Malaita (140 ), Isabel (146 ), Makira (157 ), Choiseul (164 ), and of course th
Guadalcanal (110 ), famous as one of the places where John Wayne gave the Imperial
Japanese Army a bloody nose during WWII (he certainly got about that guy).
The Solomons were colonised by Polynesians from the east and Papuans from the th th west, and in the 16 and 17 centuries they were colonised by the Spanish, by way of
Peru, the original Long Way Round, but the Spanish colonies declined and all that survive now are the Hispanic names of some of the islands. The Dutch, French, British and Americans all paid visits to the islands but the warlike head-hunting, cannibalistic habits of the locals, who would butcher visitors whenever the opportunity presented itself, soon earned the Solomons an unenviable reputation and the archipelago became one of those places you just sailed past and peered at through a telescope.
¹
Shortlands and Fauro, the northwestern-most islands of the Solomons, may be only 60 miles (96kms) from political PNG i.e. Bougainville, but they are at least 400miles (644kms) from the island of New Guinea, hence the confusion of the BBC statement since one presumes they were talking about New Guinea from a zoogeographical standpoint, not PNG as a sovereign state.
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
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However, by the late 1800's the British and Germans had established colonies of some worth and then they did a little horse-trading, the British swopping Western Samoa² with the Germans for their Solomons colonies (well it beats trading cards in the school playground). The Solomon Islands became the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in
1899 and remained that way until the Japanese invasion of 1942. World War Two came to the Solomons and how! During 1942 and 1943 the US Marines battled their way across the archipelago, forcing the Japanese back until they were isolated enough to ignore in the extreme northwest. Post-war, the islands slowly recovered and gained their independence as the Republic of the Solomon Islands in 1978.
Unlike southern New Guinea, the Solomons were never part of a continental landmass, having formed from volcanic activity and the uplifting of oceanic ridge-lines. During glacial times the same lowered sea-levels that would have permitted a man in prehistoric gumboots to walk from Australia to New Guinea, also probably allowed passage between some of the islands in the Solomons, but even then they were not linked to New
Guinea or anywhere else. The fauna of the Solomons reflects the remoteness of the archipelago, the native mammals consisting mostly of rats and bats, seven species of the former and forty of the latter, and one cuscus, a nocturnal, arboreal, big-eyed, prehensile-tailed marsupial. And of course since the arrival of man, feral cats, goats and pigs have colonised and wreaked havoc.
The reptile and amphibian fauna is fairly diverse with a substantial number of endemics.
The best sources are McCoy (1980 & 2006a) and Menzies (2006), but McCoy (2006b)³ also provides a very readable account of the islands. As for the herpetological stamps, curiously not even a sea turtle appeared on a stamp whilst the archipelago was the
British Solomon Islands but since Independence reptiles and amphibians have appeared on both commemoratives and definitives (see below). The Solomons went decimal in 1966 and since then the currency has been Solomons dollars and cents.
There are two main types of stamp issues.
Commemoratives are issued to commemorate an event, a person or to celebrate a particular subject. They generally have a short shelf-life and are withdrawn from service after a few weeks or months. Many countries incorporate reptile and amphibian subjects in their commemorative stamp issues. Most of the herpetological stamps in the previously described PNG articles
(O'Shea 2006a&b) were commemoratives. The other type of stamp issue is the definitive issue. These are the regular stamps of the realm, like our own Queen's head stamps, and they remain on sale for several years and are reprinted, discontinued, added to, and reissued on an individual basis or in small batches.
Most countries do not include reptiles or amphibians on their definitives. PNG only included one, the crocodile hunters from their 1973 19-stamp “traditional activities” series. The Solomons excelled themselves, they went for an entirely herpetological definitive series.
²
A good move on behalf of the British since Germany would cede all her colonies at the end of the Great War
(WWI) and Western Samoa would once again come back under the wing of the British Crown
³ I reviewed this book for the January 2008 issue of
Society.
Geographical , the magazine of the Royal Geographical
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
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1979: Definitives: Reptiles 1.
The first issue in 1979 comprising 16 stamps, was a strong and a very impressive production. It was not so much the quality of the artwork on the stamps. Despite some slightly strange artwork, all the subjects are identifiable down to family, even to genus, and most to species although a few might cause even a South Pacific herpetologist like
Mike McCoy to scratch his head if it were not for the fact they were labelled with both common and scientific names (with one exception). It is more the fact that they made the effort to honour their herpetofauna on a set of stamps, knowing that Solomon Islanders would be licking the backs of them for years to come.
Considering how reptiles are feared, loathed and despised across much of the region, this must be seen as a brave move, and it is the thought that counts here. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that nobody ever seems to die of snakebite, despite the islands having three terrestrial elapids, and several sea snakes. When I went into the main Boroko post office in Port Moresby, PNG, to pick up some of my own venomous snake stamps to stick on some letters, first the post mistress denied they had issued any snake stamps, and then refused to look at them as she reluctantly had to handle them in order to sell them to me. And those were only commemoratives with a six-month lifespan at best. Imagine the nervous breakdowns and employment vacancies in the post office if
PostPNG issued a long-standing set of snake definitives.
So onto the actual set of 16 herp stamps. The subjects are listed below and amount to five snakes, five lizards, five frogs, and a crocodile. The scientific name on the stamp is not only spelled correctly and in a remarkable high number of cases the name remains the same today, 30years later – only the generic name for the anglehead (15c) needs correcting to Hypsilurus , while the suffix for the coconut treesnake (4c) needs attention, oh, and the cane toad's genus has changed to Rhinella but why the Solomons wanted to celebrate this introduce South American pest has me puzzled. I would however question some of the common names, as detailed below, but common names are more a matter of personal taste and none are too far from the mark, although curiously no name was provided for the mourning gecko (10c), surely an oversight. My favourite is the $1.00
monkey-tail skink, curiously referred to as “large skink” when I am sure they meant “giant skink”.
The most disappointing stamp is probably the Pacific boa (6c), which is really nothing like, either the slender tree boa ( C.carinata
), which does not occur in the Solomons, nor its former subspecies, the stocky ground boa ( C.paulsoni
) which does. It is probably based on and intended to represent the South Pacific treeboa ( C.bibroni
). The identity of the monitor lizard (12c.) is also a little hard to confirm because the markings on its back are much larger and dark-centred than any I have seen on the generally speckled to small-spotted mangrove monitor ( V.indicus
), although it may represent a former subspecies, now elevated to specific status, the Isabel monitor ( V.spinulosus
) which has larger markings. However, this does not distract from an attractive set of stamps, a set well worth mounting or framing.
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Journal of The International Herpetological Society
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Value
1c
3c
4c
6c
8c
10c
12c
15c
20c
25c
30c
35c
45c
$1.00
$2.00
$5.00
Common name on stamp
Sea snake
Red-banded tree snake
Whip snake
Pacific boa
Skink n/a
Monitor
Anglehead
Giant toad
Marsh frog
Horned frog
Tree Frog
Guppy’s snake
Large skink
Guppy’s frog
Estuarine crocodile
Scientific name on stamp
Laticauda colubrina
Boiga irregularis
Dendrelaphis calligaster
Candoia carinata
Emoia cyanura
Lepidodactylus lugubris
Varanus indicus
Goniocephalus godeffroyi
Bufo marinus
Platymantis solomonis
Ceratobatrachus guentheri
Litoria thesaurensis
Salomonelaps par
Corucia zebrata
Discodeles guppyi
Crocodylus porosus
Correct common Current scientific name
Yellow-lipped sea krait
Brown treesnake
Coconut treesnake
South Pacific treeboa
Copper-striped skink
Mourning gecko
Mangrove monitor
Godeffroy’s anglehead
Cane toad
Wrinkled ground frog
Günther’s triangle frog
Treasury Is. treefrog
Solomons coralsnake
Monkey-tailed skink
Guppy’s frog
Estuarine crocodile
Laticauda colubrina
Boiga irregularis
Dendrelaphis calligastra
Candoia bibroni
Emoia cyanura
Lepidodactylus lugubris
Varanus indicus
Goniocephalus godeffroyi
Rhinella marina
Platymantis solomonis
Ceratobatrachus guentheri
Litoria thesaurensis
Salomonelaps par
Corucia zebrata
Discodeles guppyi
Crocodylus porosus
1979: Turtles .
Clearly on a roll the Solomons issued a set of herpetological commemorative the same year as the definitives. The subjects were the sea turtles, although having no land-based or fresh water chelonians they termed them simply “Turtles”.
This set of four species explains the reason why the previous set lacked any turtles. This is a pleasant little set illustrating four of the five marine turtles occurring in the islands, although it has to be said that the loggerhead (35c) and green turtle (50c) look remarkably like the same t u r t l e f r o m t w o s l i g h t l y different angles.
The only s p e c i e s m i s s i n g i s t h e h a w k s b i l l ( Eretmochelys imbricata ).
Value Common name on stamp
18c
35c
45c
50c
Leatherback turtle
Loggerhead turtle
Pacific Ridley turtle
Green turtle
Scientific name on stamp
Dermochelys coriacea
Caretta caretta
Lepidochelys olivacea
Chelonia mydas
Correct common name Current scientific name
Leatherback sea turtle
Loggerhead sea turtle
Pacific Ridley sea turtle
Green sea turtle
Dermochelys coriacea
Caretta caretta
Lepidochelys olivacea
Chelonia mydas
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
89

1982: Definitives: Reptiles 2.
Only three years after the Reptiles 1. definitives, another series appeared consisting of five stamps. The first four were reprints from the original 1979 issue (12c, 25c, $1.00 &
$5.00), distinguishable from the original print run only by a small ‘1992’ on the bottom of the stamp. The fifth stamp was a new issue valued at $10.00 and it featured the missing hawksbill turtle. I like the order and planning shown by the postal service of the Solomon
Islands, even if they could do with Tell Hicks as their artist.
Value Common name on stamp
12c
25c
Monitor
Marsh frog
$ 1.00
Large skink
$ 5.00
Estuarine crocodile
$10.00
Hawksbill turtle
Scientific name on stamp
Varanus indicus
Platymantis solomonis
Corucia zebrata
Crocodylus porosus
Eretmochelys imbricata
Correct common name Current scientific name
Mangrove monitor
Wrinkled ground frog
Prehensile-tailed skink
Estuarine crocodile
Hawksbill sea turtle
Varanus indicus
Platymantis solomonis
Corucia zebrata
Crocodylus porosus
Eretmochelys imbricata
1983: Definitives: Reptiles 3.
And the very next year, clearly enjoying themselves immensely, the heroic Solomons postal service issued a third instalment from the definitives stable – now do you see what
I mean about these stamps being issued in batches and lasting for years! Once again we have a reprint, the 30c triangle frog, again distinguished by the '1983' printed at the bottom. The other two stamps were new subjects and new denominations. The 40c features a blindsnake although this subject is not quite what it seems. The snake originally known as
Acutotyphlops
Ramphotyhlops subocularis is now placed in a separate genus
(Wallach, 1995) a genus of sharp-nosed blindsnakes containing five species, four in the PNG-Solomons region and one from Luzon, Philippines. The blindsnake now known as A.subocularis
occurs in the Bismarck Archipelago of PNG, well to the east of the Solomons, while two related species, confusingly called
A.kunuaensis
and the
A.solomonis
, inhabit Bougainville, Northern Solomons Province,
PNG (remember). The only species occurring in the Solomons proper is A.infralabialis
, so I suppose we must assume that it was the planned subject for this stamp.
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
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The final new definitive is the 50c stamp of the banded palm gecko, one of only two species from the hugely specious genus Cyrtodactylus
4 to occur in the archipelago. The banded palm gecko is confined to the island of Guadalcanal, where incidentally the national capital Honiara is located, while the other species, the Solomons palm gecko
( C.solomonis
) is distributed country wide. There is no doubt which species is illustrated, however, the black head and body marking and white tail tip make the artwork almost identical to a photograph of C.biordinis
in McCoy, 2006a.
Value Common name on stamp
30c
40c
50c
Horned frog
Burrowing snake
Tree gecko
Scientific name on stamp
Ceratobatrachus guentheri
Ramphotyphlops subocularis
Cyrtodactylus biordinis
Correct common name
Günther’s triangle frog
Sharp-nosed blind snake
Banded palm gecko
Current scientific name
Ceratobatrachus guentheri
Acutotyphlops infralabialis
Cyrtodactylus biordinis th
1997: 50 Anniversary of the South Pacific Commission: Turtles.
The SPC was set up in 1947 to help the emerging South Pacific nations with land use, fishery controls, education, agricultural research, public health and a multitude of other projects.
When the Solomons celth ebrated its 50 anniversary they chose to issue a set of four stamps showing the life cycle of a green sea turtle ( Chelonia mydas ) from egg laying, through the hatchlings racing to the sea, growing in the ocean, and finally starting a meaningful relationship with a green sea turtle of the opposite sex, as everything goes full circle.
4 Cyrtodactylus , the largest gecko genus in the world, currently contains 120 species .
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No common names are applied but the scientific name is included in the right margin and th each stamp bears the exciting slogan 50 CPS 1947-1997 SPC (there are French eme speaking members in the SPC), hence subscript .
eme
Value
50c
90c
$1.50
$2.00
Description of stamp
Female green sea turtle laying eggs
Young green sea turtles heading for the sea
Young green sea turtles growing in the ocean
Courting pair of adult green sea turtles
1999: PhilexFrance ’99: Marine life.
Scientific name on stamp
Chelonia mydas
“
“
“
Many countries hold philatelic exhibitions and Philex France is the French version.
Value
$1.00
Description of stamp
Green sea turtle
Scientific name on stamp
Chelonia mydas
The Solomons contribution was a sheet set of twelve $1.00 stamps printed together to form a composite picture. This arrangement is known as se-tenant . The subject chosen was marine life, a popular choice for island countries since it enables them to show a variety of fish, invertebrates, marine mammals and even divers in the collection. A common inclusion is a sea turtle and on this occasion the most popular and widely illustrated green sea turtle was illustrated.
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
92

2001: Hong Kong 2001 Stamp Exhibition.
The fact that there was a stamp exhibition in Hong Kong in 2001, the Year of the Snake, led to a plethora of countries producing snake related stamps, many of them painfully bad. After so many excellent issues from the Solomons one might expect them to have excelled.... but they didn’t, the two stamps issued for the Hong Kong exhibition show bland serpentine representations accompanied by the Hong Kong 2001 logo.
‘nough said!
Value
$1.70
$2.30
Description of stamp
Snake and emblem
Snake and emblem
2001: Chinese Year of the Snake.
Another set of Chinese New Year stamps, did someone realise how awful the previous issue was?
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93

Not very imaginatively this set of four stamps in a minisheet, includes a curious background of what looks like a stretch of limestone coastline, and it is once again a crib from the earlier definitives. All four stamps are obviously snakes and all four are valued at $1.00, in a rather computer-like font, and over-stamped boldly with “Year of the Snake
2001”. Hmmm!
Value Common name on stamp
$1.00
Red-banded tree snake
$1.00
Whip snake
$1.00
$1.00
Pacific boa
Guppy’s snake
Scientific name on stamp
Boiga irregularis
Dendrelaphis calligaster
Candoia carinata
Salomonelaps par
Correct common name Current scientific name
Brown treesnake
Coconut treesnake
Pacific treeboa
Solomons coralsnake
Boiga irregularis
Dendrelaphis calligastra
Candoia bibroni
Salomonelaps par
2005: WWF Prehensile-tailed skink.
Value Common name on stamp Scientific name on stamp
$ 1.50
$ 2.60
$ 3.00
$10.00
Prehensile-tailed skink
“
“
“
Corucia zebrata
“
“
“
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But we have, as they say, left the best to last. I have two favourite skinks, the crocodile skink ( Tribolonotus gracilis ) featured on a PNG stamp in 1978 (O'Shea 2006a), and itself featured on the cover of The Herptile 31(3), and the prehensile-tailed or monkey-tailed skink ( Corucia zebrata ) which has already impressed me on the $1.00 1979 Solomons definitive.
So imagine how pleased I was to find the Solomons had issued an entire set of stamps dedicated to this fascinating and endangered species.
The four stamps carry the WWF logo and consist simply of four different views of Corucia clambering around in the vegetation.
So detailed are they that they must be artwork produced from photographs or real-life, quiet a step on from some of the earlier artwork. Not only are the four stamps available as a set, they are also available as a minisheet containing eight (two of each) surrounded by a scene from the rainforest with a monkey-tail climbing steadfastly up a treetrunk, the words ‘Solomon Islands’ emblazoned across the top and the common and scientific names at the bottom. My only criticism is that the scientific names are not italicised, but really I am being a bit picky. This really is a very nice set of stamps enabling me to finish this article on a high note.
References
McCoy, M.
1980 Reptiles of the Solomon Islands.
No.7. xi+80pp.
Wau Ecology Institute Handbook
McCoy, M.
2006 Reptiles of the Solomon Islands.
Pensoft, Sofia. 147pp.
McCoy, M.
2006
Menzies, J.
Solomon Islands: A South Seas Journey.
2006
Zipolo Habu. 176pp
The Frogs of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands . Pensoft, Sofia.
x+346pp.
O'Shea, M.
2006 The Herpetological Stamps of Papua New Guinea.
31(3):83-93.
The Herptile
O'Shea, M.
2006 The Dangerous Snakes of Papua New Guinea, a commemorative stamp issue.
The Herptile 31(4):132-140.
Wallach, V.
1995. A new genus for the Ramphotyphlops subocularis species group
(Serpentes: Typhlopidae), with description of a new species.
Asiatic
Herpetological Research 6: 132-150.
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
95

Postscript:
2007: WWF Marine Turtles (Papua New Guinea)
Hard on the heels of my Dangerous Snakes of PNG series, PostPNG produced another set of herpetological stamps, so I include them here as a postscript to the Solomons stamp issues. The full set comprises six stamps, each featuring one of the six sea turtles species found in Papuan waters. All correctly labelled with common and scientific names, even if the term 'turtle' is used in place of 'sea turtle', and a four stamp minisheet illustrating juvenile sea turtles under a panorama of a rather washed-out tropical island with a hawksbill sea turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) skimming over a reef.
The images are all photographs and whilst one or two are a little lacking in character or photographic quality I do think this a worthy and collectable set, especially when you realise there are actually ten different stamps in this set. It is especially pleasing to see a stamp featuring the flatback sea turtle ( Natator depressus ) a species confined to
Australian and Papuan waters and usually omitted from sea turtle stamp sets.
Value
10t
35t
85t
K3
K3.35
K5.35
Common name on stamp
Hawksbill turtle
Flatback turtle
Loggerhead turtle
Leatherback turtle
Green turtle
Olive Ridley turtle
Scientific name on stamp
Eretmochelys imbricata
Natator depressus
Caretta caretta
Dermochelys coriacea
Chelonia mydas
Lepidochelys olivacea
Correct common name
Hawksbill sea turtle
Flatback sea turtle
Loggerhead sea turtle
Leatherback sea turtle
Green sea turtle
Olive Ridley sea turtle
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96

Minisheet
Value
85t
K3
K3.35
K5.35
Common name on stamp
Flatback turtle
Leatherback turtle
Green turtle
Olive Ridley turtle
Scientific name on stamp
Natator depressus
Dermochelys coriacea
Chelonia mydas
Lepidochelys olivacea
Correct common name
Flatback sea turtle
Leatherback sea turtle
Green sea turtle
Olive Ridley sea turtle
Journal of The International Herpetological Society
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