Hemidactylus homoeolepis

Carranza, Salvador & Arnold, Edwin Nicholas, 2012, 3378, Zootaxa 3378, pp. 1-95 : 46

The Hemidactylus homoeolepis group

Until 1977, Hemidactylus homoeolepis was regarded as endemic to Socotra Island, but the revision of Arabian geckos by Arnold (1977) reported it from the Arabian mainland. This work suggested that it might have an extensive if interrupted distribution along the Southeastern seaboard of the peninsula. On Socotra, H. homoeolepis is relatively large and robust with small, sometimes slightly imbricate, dorsal scales and ventrals that occasionally show a slight serration at their edges. Socotran H. homoeolepis have SVL up to 42 mm, a low number of lamellae under the 1 st toe of pes 4–5 and under the 4 th toe of pes 7–8; preanal pores in males 3–6, arranged in a V-shaped line in front of the vent (Appendix I and pers. observ.). Morphological differences between Arabian mainland populations of H. homoeolepis were investigated in depth by Arnold (1977, 1980), who concluded that the differences between some of the known populations are greater than those between some recognized species of Hemidactylus . Morphology (Appendix I; Figs. 20–22, 24–25, 27–28), phylogenetic analyses of Dataset 1 ( Fig. 5) and Dataset 3 (12S only; Appendix III), and nuclear networks of three independent loci (c -mos, mc1r and rag2) ( Fig. 8) indicate that there are three new species of the H. homoeolepis group, all endemic to Oman ( Fig. 3). These three new species are distinct both from each other and from typical H. homoeolepis and, as a result of that, are described below.