Hemidactylus forbesii Boulenger, 1899

Razzetti, Edoardo, Sindaco, Roberto, Grieco, Cristina, Pella, Francesca, Ziliani, Ugo, Pupin, Fabio, Riservato, Elisa, Pellitteri-Rosa, Daniele, Butikofer, Luca, Suleiman, Ahmed Saeed & Al-Aseily, Badar Awadh, 2011, Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia), Zootaxa 2826, pp. 1-44 : 7

Hemidactylus forbesii Boulenger, 1899

Hemidactylus forbesii Boulenger, 1899: 5 —Locus typicus: “Abd al-Kuri”. Hemidactylus homoeolepis [partim].— Steindachner 1903: 12. Hemidactylus forbesii . — Boulenger, 1903: 95, Pl. 9.2.

Hemidactylus forbesii . — Joger, 2000: 341.

Hemidactylus forbesii . — Rösler & Wranik, 2004: 512, Pl. 13. Hemidactylus homoeolepis [partim].— Rösler & Wranik, 2004: 515.

Hemidactylus forbesii , like other Abd al-Kuri endemics, is a very poorly known species with unclear phylogenetic relationships. It seems rather widespread across the island where it was found both close to the sea and in the inland. It is strictly nocturnal. In places where it is present, is rather numerous. In March 2010 we found very large eggs under fossil corals and in rock crevices and cracks. Our observations agree with those by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant (in Boulenger, 1903), who reported that the species was “ very common below stones”. Rösler & Wranik (2004) made few interesting behavioural observations including one individual that fled in the marine water and swam to a rock nearby.

Original data. Fig. 8. Abd al-Kuri Island.

Habitat. Rocks, piles of stones or corals close to the sea on sandy ground, among debris.

Bibliographic data. Boulenger (1899, 1903), Steindachner (1903), Rösler & Wranik (2004).

General distribution. Endemic to Abd al-Kuri.