Type species
Lau banded iguana
Brachylophus fasciatus
Endangered CITES I
This is the iguana the genus was built around — named in 1800, type species of Brachylophus. The English name “Fiji banded iguana” used to cover almost every green banded lizard in the archipelago. After the 2008 split, fasciatus in the strict sense is the eastern animal: the Lau Group and the Moala islands.
It has also been introduced to Tonga (and appears in some older extra-limital lists). Many historic “fasciatus” records from central Fiji, Vanuatu or Gau belong to other species.
Adult males are banded lime-green lizards of the canopy. They are fully protected in Fiji, but eastern islands still lose forest to conversion, logging and fire, and nesting animals meet pigs, cats and rats on the ground.
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Eastern Fiji. Introduced on Tonga. Not the default identity for every “banded iguana” in a zoo.
Fasciatus means banded. Common name now often “Lau banded iguana” to avoid mixing it with bulabula.
Endangered. Dedicated recovery work has lagged behind the crested iguana; a Fijian iguana action plan has been in preparation.
Central-island banded iguanas are B. bulabula. Gau Island animals are B. gau.