First Record of the African Wall Gecko
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WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSIRCF REPTILES • VOL 15,& NAMPHIBIANSO 4 • DEC 2008 •189 26(3):261–262 • JAN 2020 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCED SPECIES FEATURE ARTICLES . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: FirstOn theRecord Road to Understanding the ofEcology andthe Conservation African of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ......................Wall Joshua M.Gecko, Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198 TarentolaRESEARCH ARTICLES ephippiata O’Shaughnessy 1875 . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 (Phyllodactylidae). The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida in North America .............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 CONSERVATIONTasman ALERT Rosenfeld, Prestin Tomborello, and Nick Ziegler Department. World’s of Mammals Geology in and Crisis Geophysics, ............................................................................................................................... Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA ([email protected]).............................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 ll but three of the 21 currently recognized species in Agenus TarentolaHUSBANDRY reside in the Mediterranean Basin of Europe and North Africa. Captive or Care on of Macaronesianthe Central Netted Dragon Islands ....................................................................................................... off the Shannon Plummer 226 Atlantic coast of northernPROFILE Africa (Rato et al. 2012). The three exceptions include the. KraigAmerican Adler: A Lifetime Wall Promoting Gecko Herpetology (T. americana ................................................................................................), Michael L. Treglia 234 which is native to CubaCOMMENTARY and The Bahamas (Rato et al. 2012), and the Oriente Wall. The Gecko Turtles Have (T. Been crombiei Watching Me) ........................................................................................................................and Jamaican Eric Gangloff 238 Giant Gecko (T. albertschwartzi) from Cuba and Jamaica, BOOK REVIEW respectively (Diaz and. HedgesThreatened Amphibians2008; Sprackland of the World edited and by Swinney S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, 1998). Non-native populationsR. Berridge, P. ofRamani, the and White-spotted B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Wall Robert Powell 243 Gecko (T. annularis) and the Common Wall Gecko (T. mau- ritanica) have been recordedCONSERVATION in southern RESEARCH Florida REPORTS: (e.g., KryskoSummaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 et al. 2016). NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 Loveridge (1947) EDITORIAL suggested INFORMATION Tarentola ephippiata ............................................................................................................................... and T. ...................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252 annularis were geographic races of a single species, but a later morphological analysis by Grandison (1961) demonstrated that they were, as originally described, distinct sympatric spe- cies native to parts of northcentral Frontand Cover.northwestern Shannon Plummer. Africa. Back Cover. Michael Kern Indeed, confusion between the two Totatspecies et velleseque in collections audant mo and Totat et velleseque audant mo presumably in the wild is warrantedestibus as the inveliquo two taxavelique are rerchil super - estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus ficially very similar. However, distinguishingaut dolor apicto characters invere pe dolum noted aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum by Grandison (1961) included a disparityfugiatis maionsequat between eumque number fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- of teeth in neonates and adults ofma both derrovitae species voluptam, and, as quos most tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as apparent at first glance, dorsal patterns,accullabo. with T. ephippiata described as having “ladder-like arrangements of red or brown crescents stretching from the nape to the base of the tail.” Herein we report the first record of an African Wall Gecko from the state of Florida and the continent of North America. At 0002 h on 25 June 2019, while searching for lizards during a separate project permitted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, PT observed Fig. 1. Dorsal view of an adult African Wall Gecko, Tarentola ephip- by flashlight and photographed a lone lizard that the authors piata (UF-Herpetology 188725), from Davie, Broward County, Florida. initially thought was an aberrant T. annularis but was later Photograph by Prestin Tomborello. Copyright © 2020. Tasman Rosenfeld. All rights reserved. 261 IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324 ROSENFELD ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 26(3):261–262 • JAN 2020 identified as T. ephippiata by Aaron M. Bauer (Fig. 1). The Acknowledgments specimen was deposited in the Florida Museum of Natural We thank Mike R. Rochford for his guidance in writing our History (UF-Herpetology 188725). first record for publication. The gecko was on an approximately 2-m tall chain- link fence along the edge of an empty suburban lot Literature Cited (26.0455895°N, -80.2193010°W; Datum WGS84) in the Colautti, R.I. and H.J. MacIsaac. 2004. A neutral terminology to define ‘invasive’ species. Diversity and Distributions 10: 135–141. vicinity of a warehouse of a pet dealer credited with the intro- Díaz, L.M. and S.B. Hedges. 2008. A new gecko of the genus Tarentola (Sauria: duction of numerous nonnative reptilian and amphibian Gekkonidae) from eastern Cuba. Zootaxa 1743: 43–52. species (Krysko et al. 2016). The lot consisted of a lawn of Grandison, A.G.C. 1961. Preliminary notes on the taxonomy of Tarentola annularis primarily St. Augustine and other short grasses with oaks and and T. ephippiata (Sauria: Gekkonida). Zoologische Mededelingen 38: 1–14 Krysko, K.L., L.A. Somma, D.C. Smith, C.R. Gillette, D. Cueva, J.A. Wasilewski, sea grape trees on the southern and southwestern perimeter K.A. Enge, S.A. Johnson, T.S. Campbell, J.R. Edwards, M.R. Rochford, hanging over the fence on which the lizard was found. Given R.T. Thompkins, J.L. Fobb, S. Mullin, C.J. Lechowicz, D. Hazelton, and the locality of the encounter and the other exotic species A. Warren. 2016. New verified nonindigenous amphibians and reptiles in Florida through 2015, with a summary of over 152 years of introductions. observed, we suggest that the introduction of T. ephippiata to Reptiles and Amphibians 23: 110–143. this site was due to the accidental or intentional release of a Loveridge, A. 1947. Revision of the African lizards of the family Gekkonidae. captive animal by the pet dealer or a private keeper. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 98: 1–469. Rato, C., S. Carranza, and D.J. Harris. 2012. Evolutionary history of the Genus The presence of a single non-gravid individual of a spe- Tarentola (Gekkota: Phyllodactylidae) from the Mediterranean Basin, esti- cies not known to be parthenogenic likely represents a stage-II mated using multilocus sequence data. BMC Evolutionary Biology 12: 14 introduction (sensu Colautti and MacIsaac 2004). Eradication (doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-14). Sprackland, R.G. and G.N. Swinney. 1998. A new species of giant gecko of the by rapid response could be successful, although foliage and genus Tarentola (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Jamaica. Journal of private property pose challenges. Zoology 245: 73–78. 262.