Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2014-06-09
Page range: 221–241
Abstract views: 101
PDF downloaded: 26

Taxonomic revision of the Australian arid zone lizards Gehyra variegata and G. montium (Squamata, Gekkonidae) with description of three new species

South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000. Australia
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide 5005. Australia Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, PO Box 208106 New Haven, CT 06520-8106. USA
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide 5005. Australia Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, University of Adelaide 5005. Australia
Department of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, North Adelaide, 5006. Australia, and Department of Genetics, University of Adelaide 5005. Australia
Reptilia Gekkota systematics karyotype cryptic species

Abstract

The taxonomy of central Australian populations of geckos of the genus Gehyra has been uncertain since chromosomal studies carried out in the 1970s and 1980s revealed considerable heterogeneity and apparently independent patterns of morphological and karyotypic diversity. Following detailed molecular genetic studies, species boundaries in this complex have become clearer and we here re-set the boundaries of the three named species involved, G. variegata (Duméril & Bibron, 1836), G. montium Storr, 1982, and G. nana King, 1982, and describe three new species. Two of the new species, G. moritzi and G. pulingka, include populations formerly assigned to either G. montium or G. nana Storr, 1982, while the third, G. versicolor, includes all of the eastern Australian populations formerly assigned to G. variegata.