Mount Sinai gecko explained

The Mount Sinai gecko (Hemidactylus mindiae) is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Egypt.

Habitat

The natural habitats of H. mindiae are rocky areas, caves, rural gardens, and urban areas.

Conservation status

The Mount Sinai gecko is threatened by habitat loss.

Etymology

The specific epithet, mindiae, commemorates the late Mindy Baha El Din, an environmentalist and herpetologist from Egypt. She was the wife of Sherif Baha El Din, also a herpetologist, who described this lizard as a new species.^[1]

Further reading

• Baha El Din, Sherif M. (2005). "An overview of Egyptian species of Hemidactylus (Gekkonidae), with the description of a new species from the high mountains of South Sinai". Zoology in the Middle East 34: 11–26. (Hemidactylus mindiae, new species). (in English, plus abstract in German).

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 mindiae, p. 178).