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1983-1985
Out of 16 definitives, two featured sea turtles. 1986 AMERIPEX '86 INTERNATIONAL STAMP EXHIBITION [no image available yet] Forty stamps in a se-tenant sheet with a composite background design, one stamp of which features the Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).
A se-tenant set of four reptile stamps from Palau. The generic name for the Emerald tree skink is mis-spelt Lampropelepis instead of Lamprolepis, possibly caused Palau's stamps being produced in the US where the generic name for the kingsnake (Lampropeltis) is well known. The gecko identified as Gekko vittatus is an undescribed species (fide Crombie & Pregill 1999). Crombie, R.I. & G.K.Pregill 1999 A checklist of the herpetofauna of the Palau Islands (Republic of Belau), Oceania. Herpetological Monographs 13:29-80. 1989
A sheet of 20 stamps featuring mangrove swamp flora and fauna, issued for the World Stamp Expo 1989, two of which feature reptiles, the Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and a strangley arboreal but endemic Palau Dog-faced watersnake (Cerberus dunsoni).
1990
[no image available yet] Thirty-five stamps in a se-tenant sheet with a composite background design, one stamp of which features the Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).
1990
[no image available yet] Sixteen stamps in a se-tenant sheet with a composite background design, one stamp of which features the Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) .1993
[no image available yet] Four stamps, one of which features the New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae).
1994
An attractive sheet of 16 stamps, 4x four, illustrating the life history of the Estuarine or Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).
[no image available yet]
Twenty four stamps with three featuring a crocodile, a banded sea snake and a Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). 1995 SINGAPORE 1995 [no image available yet] One of four stamps features a diver with a sea turtle.
A sheet of 12 stamps, 2x six, artistically showing the life cycle of a sea turtle.
1999
An interesting set of 12 stamps plus a minisheet, featuring endangered amphibians and reptiles, although some of the species shown are not as endangered as some others that have not been included, leading one to the belief that this is simply a collection of artworks from photographs, determined by the images available rather than their endangered status. There are three Palau/Worldwide species, one Mexican, one Southeast Asian, one Galapagos, one USA and seven South African, a curious eclectic sample. Furthermore the title on the sheet states Turtles, Frogs and Amphibians, when frogs are of course amphibians, and there is also a lizard represented on the sheet.
2000
A couple of uninspired issues for the Chinese Year of the Snake.
Two small six-stamp minisheets, one of which features the Estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the other a White-lipped treefrog (Litoria infrafrenata) from New Guinea, despite the fact Palau has an endemic frog species (Platymantis pelewensis), and the Borneo subspecies of the Mangrove snake (Boiga dendrophila annectans), another species not present in the Palau archipelago. So not really "Flora and Fauna of Palau" then, but see below for a shocker!
2002 PALAU-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE
Thirty se-tenant stamps with a sea krait, sea turtle and a crocodile appearing in the bottom border of the compositve background image.
2004
At first glance this looks an attractive set of four stamps on a minisheet with a second single stamp minisheet, but the title Reptiles of Palau is misleading. Although the sea krait and the sea snake may occur in Palau's territorial waters the other species are thousands of miles from home. The Bullsnake (Pituophis melanoleucus) and the Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis) are snakes from the east coast of the United States, literally on the other side of the world, while the Glass frog (Centrolene grandisonae) is not even a reptile, and it comes from the Pacific slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Colombia in South America. The seasnake genus Pelamis has been synonymised with Hydrophis. A particularly poor show by the Palau postal service even though Palau has only five species of terrestrial snake species which could grace its stamps, and misleading for non-herpetological Palauns and stamp collectors too.
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