Hemidactylus brookii explained

Hemidactylus brookii, also known commonly as Brooke's house gecko and the spotted house gecko, is a widespread species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae.

Etymology

The specific name, brookii, is in honor of British adventurer James Brooke.^[1]

Description

Snout somewhat longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, nearly twice the diameter of the orbit; forehead concave; ear-opening small, oval, vertical, about one third the diameter of the eye; on the occiput very small round tubercles. Rostral quadrangular, with a median cleft; nostril bordered by the rostral, the first upper labial and three nasals, the upper not in contact with its fellow. Eight to ten upper and seven to nine lower labials; mental large, triangular; two or three pair of chin-shields, median forming - a suture. Scales of the throat granular. Body covered with small granules, intermixed with large keeled trihedral tubercles, arranged in 16-20 longitudinal series, the keels of the outer ones indistinct; the diameter of the largest tubercles on the flanks exceeds the diameter of the ear-opening. Ventral scales larger than those on the throat, cycloid, imbricate. Male with 7-20 femoral pores on each side. Tail depressed, annulate, with rows of 8 or 6 spine-like tubercles, below with a series of transversely dilated plates. Limbs granular, the upper part of the hind limb with large keeled tubercles; digits free, dilated, the free distal joint long, 3-6 lamellae under the inner, 6-8 under the median toes.

Yellowish-brown above with irregular dark spots; one or two dark lines on the side of the head, passing through the eye; lips with dark bars. Lower parts white; all the scales finely dotted with dark brown. Young specimens have cross lines of white tubercles on the back; those on the tail all white.^[2]

Length of head and body, tail .

Geographic range

By subspecies:

• brookii
  • Senegal, Togo, Angola, Cape Verde, Tanzania, Gambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan (Dagana + Goree Dondo/Cuanza River Atakpame).
  • India (Himalaya), Bhutan, Thailand (HR 33: 322), Maldives, Malaysian Peninsula, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (= Burma) (Tsagain), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia (Borneo).
  • Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Antilles, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Port-Au-Prince, Trinidad, Colombia
• angulatus: Sudan, Uganda, south to Tanzania, west to Senegal. Zanzibar, Pemba Island.
  • Type locality: West coast of Africa = Gabon [angulatus]
• leightoni: Venezuela (Zulia), Colombia
  • Type locality: "Ada Foah (Guinea)" [= Ghana] [Hemidactylus guineensis PETERS 1868]

Further reading

• Annandale N (1905). "Notes on some Oriental geckos in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, with Descriptions of new Forms". Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Seventh Series 15: 26-32.
• Bauer AM, Günther R (1991). "An annotated type catalogue of the geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in the Zoological Museum, Berlin". Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 67: 279-310.
• Bauer AM, Pauwels OSG, Sumontha M (2002). "Hemidactylus brookii brookii, distribution". Herpetological Review 33: 322.
• Das I (2006). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Borneo. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 144 pp. . (Hemidactylus brookii, p. 101).
• Gleadow F (1887). "Description of a new lizard from the Dangs". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 2: 49-51.
• Gray JE (1845). Catalogue of the Specimens of Lizards in the Collection of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum. (Edward Newman, printer). xxviii + 289 pp. (Hemidactylus brookii, new species, p. 153).
• Mitchell JC, Zug GR (1988). "Ecological observations on the gecko Hemidactylus brookii in Nepal". Amphibia-Reptilia 9: 405-413.
• Powell R, Maxey SA (1990). "Hemidactylus brookii ". Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. No. 493.

External links

• • Web site: Brook's House Gecko (Hemidactylus brookii) | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service .

Notes and References

1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Hemidactylus brookii, p. 39).
2. [Nelly de Rooij|Rooij, Nelly de]