Sphaerodactylus richardi explained

Sphaerodactylus richardi, also known commonly as Richard's banded sphaero or the Zapata big-scaled sphaero, is a small species of gecko, a lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae. The species is endemic to Cuba.

Etymology

The specific name, richardi, is in honor of American herpetologist Richard Thomas.^[1]

Taxonomy

Sphaerodactylus richardi belongs to the scaber group. Other species in the group are S. oliveri, S. scaber, and S. storeyae.^[2]

Description

Sphaerodactylus richardi may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 31.1mm. It has large non-overlapping dorsal scales, except for a zone of mid-dorsal granular scales which is three scales wide. Adults have a dorsal color pattern of 5-6 bold dark crossbands on the body.^[2]

Habitat

The preferred habitats of S. richardi are forest, shrubland, and marine intertidal.

Reproduction

Sphaerodactylus richardi is oviparous.

Further reading

• Hedges SB, Garrido OH (1993). "A New Species of Gecko (Sphaerodactylus) from Central Cuba". Journal of Herpetology 27 (3): 300–306. (Sphaerodatylus richardi, new species). (in English, with an abstract in Spanish).
• Rösler H (2000). "Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha)". Gekkota 2: 28–153. (Sphaerodactylus richardi, p. 114). (in German).

Notes and References

1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Sphaerodactylus richardi, p. 221).
2. [Stephen Blair Hedges|Hedges]