Herpetology Notes, volume 11: 301-302 (2018) (published online on 17 April 2018)

The third-longest sperm storage period in : an observation in a of Rüppell, 1835 from southern (: )

Herbert Rösler1, Wolfgang Wranik2 and Hinrich Kaiser3,*

During fieldwork in December 2010 several geckos of measured, and weighed with the following results: the Pristurus were collected in southern Yemen length 7.3 mm, width 5.6 mm, weight 0.12 g. A normally near the port city of Aden in $l Burayqah. Whereas alOGeveloped hatchling (snout–vent length 13.0 mm, tail individuals superficially resembled P. rupestris, they length 16.5 mm, weight 0.09 g) emerged from the egg were identified in a molecular study by Badiane et al. on 18 June 2017. This individual has grown normally (2014) as members of a western clade of P. rupestris (Fig. 1). The still separated female has produced no sensu lato, which represents an undescribed species. further clutches to date (14 August 2017). Badiane et al. (2014) referred to this form as Pristurus Taking into account the possibility that the female sp. 1, which is how we refer to it in this paper. In order copulated with the male on 10 May 2016, their last to add data about reproduction to the knowledge of this day of cohabitation, and including a deliberately high putative new species, one male and one female were estimate of gestation period at 14 d, the female stored exported to make captive-breeding observations. The fertile sperm for a minimum of 320 d. specific conditions of their captivity, including terrarium Species of Pristurus are known to have the capacity setup and acclimation, closely follow the description in for long-term sperm storage. In the case of P. carteri Rösler et al. (2017). and P. flavipunctatus this period was recorded as 265 The male and female individuals of Pristurus sp. 1 d and 286 d, respectively, with similar experimental co-inhabited their terrarium from 1 July 2011–10 May conditions (Rösler, 2016; Rösler et al., 2017). A sperm 2016. During this period the female produced 29 egg storage period of 320 d in Pristurus sp. 1 represents a clutches, each comprising a single egg. The female was new record for the long-term sperm storage capacity in then moved to a separate terrarium where she was found the genus Pristurus. Simultaneously, this observation is to be gravid during the last week of March 2017. On 9 the third-longest sperm storage period observed in any April, the female laid a single egg and buried it 1 cm species to date, after Aeluroscalabotes felinus deep in the sand-and-clay substrate of the terrarium (see Rösler and Hofmann, 2015). The egg was retrieved,

1 Sektion Herpetologie, Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Museum für Tierkunde, Königsbrücker Landstraße 159, 01109 Dresden, Germany 2 Institut für Biowissenschaften, Universität Rostock, Albert- Einstein-Straße 3, 18051 Rostock, Germany 3 Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Figure 1. Juvenile individual of Pristurus sp. 1 (sensu Badiane Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC et al., 2014) on Day 58 post-hatching (snout–vent length 17.0 20013, USA mm) that hatched from an egg fertilized after 320 d of sperm * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] storage. 302 Herbert Rösler et al.

(430 d; Wolf, 2009) and Hemidactylus frenatus (382 d; Yamamoto and Ota, 2006).

Acknowledgments. We thank Dr. Abdulaziz Moqbil Al-Americ of Aden University for his assistance with the fieldwork in Yemen. Research and collection were carried out under permits issued to Aden University by the Ministry of Water and the Environment, and specimens were exported in accordance with Section 2, Article 52 of the Yemeni Customs Law.

References

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Accepted by Daniel Portik