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Type: Article
Published: 2008-02-07
Page range: 21–34
Abstract views: 78
PDF downloaded: 2

A new ground-dwelling Hemidactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Maharashtra, with a key to the Hemidactylus of India

Bombay Natural History Society, Herpetology Section, Collection Department, Hornbill House, S. B. Singh Road, Mumbai 400 023, India
Department of Biology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA
Reptilia Hemidactylus Gekkonidae India Maharashtra description northern Western Ghats

Abstract

A distinctive new species of ground-dwelling gecko of the genus Hemidactylus is described from the plateaus of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. It is a member of a group of chiefly terrestrial Indian Hemidactylus species that have undivided, or only partly divided subdigital lamellae. The new species is most similar in appearance to the lowlandinhabiting Hemidactylus albofasciatus Grandison & Soman, 1963, but can be distinguished by its larger size and a suite of distinctive scalation and coloration characters. A key to the species of Hemidactylus currently known from the Republic of India is provided.

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