Hemidactylus turcicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Carranza, Salvador & Arnold, Edwin Nicholas, 2012, 3378, Zootaxa 3378, pp. 1-95 : 67

The Hemidactylus turcicus group

( Figs. 4, 5, 31, Table 1; Appendix I; Appendix III)

Hemidactylus turcicus turcicus ( Linnaeus, 1758) has a mainly circum-Mediterranean distribution including many islands and with populations extending to the South along the Nile River up to the border with Sudan ( Sindaco & Jeremcenko 2008). They have also been introduced recently in the Canary Islands, Mexico, Cuba, Florida, and in other areas of the United States ( Kraus 2009). According to a recent phylogenetic study from Carranza and Arnold (2006), H. turcicus may have originated in the Middle East from where it moved Westwards across the whole Mediterranean, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. In this same study, the authors obtained two distinct mtDNA lineages of H. turcicus with little genetic divergence between them, suggesting that the phylogeographic pattern obtained was the result of a very rapid and recent spread. Results obtained for the European populations of another gecko, Tarentola mauritanica had, until recently, been interpreted to support the same scenario. However, Rato et al. (2010, 2011) have shown that the phylogeographic pattern of both T. mauritanica and H. turcicus are not solely the result of a recent colonization but represent two unprecedented cases of selective sweeps taking place in the same geographic area ( Rato et al. 2010, 2011). While the circum-Mediterranean populations of H. turcicus represent two closely related lineages, the dark-colored H. lavadeserticus was described from the black Syrian basal desert, H. mindiae was reported from Southern Jordan (Amr et al. 2007) and a new morphologically and genetically distinct species, H. dawudazraqi , was recently described from a wide area ranging from Southern Syria to Southwestern Jordan ( Moravec et al. 2011). Some inland North Arabian Hemidactylus may also form part of the H. turcicus assemblage, including ones from (spelling copied from the BMNH records) Qunfidah, Saudi Arabia (BMNH1992.170–171); 150 km south of Taymah, Saudi Arabia (BMNH1992.169); Hali, Saudi Arabia (18º 44’ N 41º 24’ E; BMNH1992.200–2001); 20 km East of Hail (BMNH1988.209) and Riyadh (BMNH1986.215). An animal from Hail is illustrated by Leviton et al. (1992; plate 5).

Interestingly, H. lemurinus described from Wadi Ayoun in Central Dhofar, South Oman ( Figs. 4 and 31) turns out to be part of the H. turcicus group ( Fig. 5; Appendix III), closely related to a clade formed by H. turcicus and H. dawudazraqi . According to the results of the dating analysis inferred with Dataset 2, H. lemurinus and the ancestor of H. turcicus and H. dawudazraqi split about 5.9 mya (95% HPD: 3.4–8.7). Uncorrected genetic distances between H. lemurinus and H. turcicus are 14% in the cytb and 4.6% in the 12S; between H. lemurinus and H. dawudazraqi 13.8% in the cytb and 4.4% in the 12S. As shown in Fig. 31, superficially H. lemurinus is unlike other members of the group, differing by its relatively large size, big head, slender limbs and tail, absence of enlarged tubercles on the dorsum, and in its pallid coloration. Since H. lemurinus was described, it has been recorded from near Mughsayl in Western Dhofar, South Oman (A.S. Gardner, pers. comm.; not shown in Fig. 4 as no specimens are available and its presence could not be confirmed in any of our trips), and close to the Southern coast of Yemen at Sayhut and Wadi Hajr ( Schatti & Desvoignes 1999). The latter record is about 650 km west of the type locality.