Prasinohaema
# Prasinohaema

Prasinohaema (Greek: "green blood") is a genus of skinks characterized by having green blood. This condition is caused by an excess buildup of the bile pigment biliverdin. Prasinohaema species have plasma biliverdin concentrations approximately 1.5-30 times greater than fish species with green blood plasma and 40 times greater than humans with green jaundice. The benefit provided by the high pigment concentration is unknown, but one possibility is that it protects against malaria.

## Geographic range

Species in the genus Prasinohaema are endemic to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

## Species

Species in the genus include:

* Prasinohaema flavipes (Parker, 1936) – common green tree skink
* Prasinohaema parkeri (M.A. Smith, 1937) – Parker's green tree skink
* Prasinohaema prehensicauda (Loveridge, 1945) – prehensile green tree skink
* Prasinohaema semoni (Oudemans, 1894) – Semon's green tree skink
* Prasinohaema virens (W. Peters, 1881) - green-blooded skink, green tree skink

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Prasinohaema.

## Etymology

The specific names, parkeri and semoni, are in honor of English herpetologist Hampton Wildman Parker and German zoologist Richard Wolfgang Semon, respectively.

