Hemidactylus on the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’S Giant Serpent
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WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 18923(3):178–182 • DEC 2016 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES The .CommonChasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayiHouse) in Wisconsin: Gecko, Hemidactylus On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: frenatusA Hypothetical Schlegel Excursion ............................................................................................................................ in Dumeril & BibronRobert W. Henderson 198 1836 (Reptilia:RESEARCH ARTICLES Gekkonidae) in Gujarat, India . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida 1 2 1 .............................................HarshilBrian J. Camposano,Patel , Vaibhav Kenneth L. Krysko,Naik Kevin, and M. Enge,Shantilal Ellen M. TankDonlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 1Department of Biosciences, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat – 395007, India ([email protected]) CONSERVATION ALERT 2Valsad Pardi, Gopi Street, Valsad – 396001, India . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 he species-richHUSBANDRY gekkonid genus Hemidactylus com- karyotypic and molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed . Tprises at least 143Captive currently Care of the Centralrecognized Netted Dragon species ....................................................................................................... (Uetz cryptic species within taxa Shannon (e.g., Plummer H. bowringii,226 H. brookii, H. et al. 2016), of whichPROFILE at least 30 occur in India (Lajmi et frenatus, H. garnotii, and H. platyurus) once thought to be al. 2016). These geckos. Kraig areAdler: widely A Lifetime Promotingdistributed Herpetology throughout ................................................................................................ well defined (Carranza and Michael Arnold L. Treglia 2006; 234 McMahan and Zug most of the tropicalCOMMENTARY and subtropical regions of the Eastern 2007; Bauer et al. 2010a; Lajmi et al. 2016). Hemisphere, the Mediterranean. The Turtles Have region, Been Watching and Me the ........................................................................................................................ Americas. In Many species of Hemidactylus Eric Gangloff are238 known to have been southern Asia, theseBOOK are the REVIEW most abundant and diverse noc- introduced outside of their native range by human activity, turnal geckos. The majority. Threatened ofAmphibians species of thehave World relatively edited by S.N. small Stuart, M. Hoffmann,and at J.S.least Chanson, nine N.A. species Cox, function effectively as human com- distributions, largely confinedR. Berridge, P.to Ramani, southern and B.E. AsiaYoung ..............................................................................................................and Africa, mensals (Carranza and Arnold Robert Powell 2006; 243 Bauer et al. 2010a), and just eight species (H. mabouia, H. turcicus, H. brookii, leading to the common name (House Gecko) applied to most CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 H. frenatus, H. garnotii NATURAL, H. persicusHISTORY, RESEARCHH. flaviviridis REPORTS, and: Summaries H. of Publishedof these Reports species. on Natural Four History of ................................. the commensal 247 species (H. brookii, bowringii) are responsible NEWBRIEFS for ...............................................................................................................................most of the huge geographi- H. parvimaculatus......................................................., H. frenatus, and 248H. flaviviridis) are pur- EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 cal area occupied by FOCUSthe genus ON CONSERVATION (Carranza and: A Arnold Project You 2006). Can Support ...............................................................................................ported to have originated on the Indian 252 Subcontinent (Bansal The first five of these are widely distributed and are present in and Karanth 2010; Bauer et al. 2010b). both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Despite consid- The Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus; Fig. erable variation of shapes and sizes of species within the genus, 1) is native to southern and southeastern Asia and the Indo- Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. Fig. 1. An adult female Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus; NCBS AQ031) from Valsad, Gujarat, India. Photograph by H. Patel. Copyright © 2016. Harshil Patel. All rights reserved. 178 PATEL ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 23(3):178–182 • DEC 2016 Australian Archipelago, but it has been widely introduced Materials & Methods throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world Three geckos were collected from three different locations in (Bauer 1994). The current range of the species includes por- southern Gujarat. All were euthanized, fixed in 10% formal- tions of eastern Africa, Madagascar, many of islands of the dehyde, preserved in 70% alcohol, and deposited in the col- South Pacific, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the lection of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) United States (Rooij 1915; Bauer 1994; Case et al. 1994; in Bangalore: NCBS AQ030, adult male collected from Vences et al. 2004). Bilimora, Navsari District, Gujarat, India; NCBS AQ031, Unfortunately, very little is known about the distribution subadult female (Fig. 1) collected from Nanakwada, Valsad of this commensal species in its native habitat, which is fur- District, Gujarat, India; NCBS AQ032, juvenile collected ther complicated by uncertainties regarding its taxonomic sta- from Vesu, Surat District, Gujarat, India. All were collected tus. Recent phylogenetic studies (Carranza and Arnold 2006; by H. Patel and V. Naik. In addition to these specimens, we Bansal and Karanth 2010) revealed that H. frenatus belongs received photographs of a similar gecko taken in Junagadh, to the Tropical Asian clade and shows high genetic variabil- Gujarat, from Mr. Pranav Vaghashiya (Fig. 3). Specimens ity within different populations, suggesting that it is a species were identified as Hemidactylus frenatus based on descriptions complex. and keys available in the literature (Smith 1935; Vyas 2005; In India, the species, as currently defined, has been Giri and Bauer 2008; Lajmi et al. 2016). recorded from states in southern and eastern parts of the coun- We made the following measurements using digital calli- try (Srinivasulu et al. 2014). No confirmed record of H. frena- pers (to the nearest 0.01 mm): Snout-vent length (SVL; from tus from the state of Gujarat existed until Vyas (2005) reported the tip of the snout to the vent), trunk length (TRL; distance this species from four islands of the Marine National Park in from axilla to groin measured from the posterior edge of the Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat (Fig. 2). Our recent survey revealed the forelimb insertion to the anterior edge of the hindlimb its existence for the first time on mainland Gujarat (Fig. 2). insertion), body width (BW; maximum width of the body), Fig. 2. The known distribution of the Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Gujarat, India. Blue dots indicate insular populations reported in Vyas (2005); red dots represent new records reported herein. For details, see text and Table 2). 179 PATEL ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 23(3):178–182 • DEC 2016 Fig. 3. An adult Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) from Junagadh, Gujarat, India. Photograph by P. Vaghashiya. crus length (CL; from the base of the heel to the knee), tail Table 1. Morphometric and meristic data for three specimens of length (TL; from the vent to the tip of the tail), tail width Common House Geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus) collected on the (TW; measured at the widest point of the tail), head length mainland of Gujarat State, India. All measurements are in mm. L = (HL; distance between retroarticular process of the jaw and left, R = right; the asterisk (*) indicates that the tail was broken