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O'shea, M. 2009 the Herpetological Stamps of The The Herptile 34 : 3 Sept. 2009. The Herpetological Stamps of the Solomon Islands Mark O’Shea Awhile 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 BismarckArchipelago, including the large islands of New Britain (38th largest island in the world) and New Ireland (93rd largest). Go further east, zoogeographically travelling into the Solomons region, and you will come to an elongate island stretching north-northwest to south-southeast. This is Bougainville (79th 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 islands are Malaita (140th ), Isabel (146 th ), Makira (157 th ), Choiseul (164 th ), and of course Guadalcanal (110th ), famous as one of the places where John Wayne gave the Imperial JapaneseArmy a bloody nose during WWII (he certainly got about that guy). The Solomons were colonised by Polynesians from the east and Papuans from the west, and in the 16th and 17 th centuries they were colonised by the Spanish, by way of Peru, the originalLong 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 85 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 ofGeographical , the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society. Journal of The International Herpetological Society 86 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 toHypsilurus , while the suffix for the coconut treesnake (4c) needs attention, oh, and the cane toad's genus has changed toRhinella but why the Solomons wanted to celebrate this introduce SouthAmerican 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.
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