Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rüppell 1840

Gholamifard, Ali & Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, 2011, Distribution of Hemidactylus geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in Fars Province, Southern Iran, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 5 (1), pp. 1-6 : 3

Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rüppell 1840 . Yellow-bellied house gecko

The type specimen of H. flaviviridis is from Massawa Island, Eritrea ( Anderson 1999). The yellow-bellied house gecko, has been reported occurring from the northeastern African and Arabian shores of the Red Sea and around the coast of Arabia and Iran, across Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan and northern India to West Bengal and south to the vicinity of Bombay ( Anderson 1999). In Iran, H. flaviviridis has already been reported from the coastal towns and villages of southern Baluchistan, Kerman, Fars, and Khuzestan Provinces ( Anderson 1999). According to the new provincial divisions, Rastegar-Pouyani et al. (2006) reported this species from the towns and villages of coastal provinces, including: Sistan and Baluchistan, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan. Recently, Gholamifard et al. (2010) recorded H. flaviviridis from Fars Province and completed the distribution range in the southern belt of the Iranian Plateau. The previously recorded specimens of H. flaviviridis are from “Ghaleh Seied,” approximately 25 km northwest of Parishan Lake in Kazeroon Township, western Fars Province ( Fig. 1 ) ( Gholamifard et al. 2010). In the present work, a single specimen of H. flaviviridis was photographed ( Fig. 4 ) (not collected) on the walls of a house (syntopic with Cyrtopodion scabrum ), near a mountainous area northeast of the city of Varavi (Mohr Township), in the southwestern region of Fars Province ( Fig. 1 ). This new locality is about 300 km northwesterly from the only previously published record for Fars.

Figures

Figure 1. Location of Fars Province on the Iranian Plateau. The black circle, red quadrangular and blue polygon indicate the previous and new locality records for H. persicus, H. flaviviridis, and H. turcicus, respectively.

Figure 4. A new specimen of H. flaviviridis from southwest of Fars Province.