Gekko albomaculatus (Giebel, 1861)

Grismer, L. Lee, del Pinto, Lelani, Quah, Evan S. H., Anuar, Shahrul, Cota, Michael, McGuire, Jimmy A., Iskandar, Djoko T., Wood Jr, Perry L. & Grismer, Jesse L., 2022, Phylogenetic and multivariate analyses of Gekko smithii Gray, 1842 recover a new species from Peninsular Malaysia and support the resurrection of G. albomaculatus (Giebel, 1861) from Sumatra, Vertebrate Zoology 72, pp. 47-80 : 47

Resurrection of Gekko albomaculatus (Giebel, 1861)

Figure 10

Platydactylus albomaculatus : Giebel 1861:58; Boulenger 1889:143; Müller 1941:188

Gecko stentor : Boulenger 1885:185 (in part); 1890:103 (in part); de Rooj 1915:57 (in part)

Gecko fascoilatus : Boettger 1886:256

Gekko stentor : Brongersma 1934:165 (in part)

Gekko smithii : Ota, Hikida, and Matsui 1991:150 (in part); Kluge 1991:10 (in part), 2001:11 (in part); Ota and Nabhitabhata 1991:503 (in part); Grossmann and Mudrack 2004:627 (in part); Koch, McGuire, Arida, Riyanto, and Hamidy 2009:172 (in part); Rösler, Bauer, Heinicke, Greenbaum, Jackman, Nguyen, and Ziegler 2011:10 (in part)

Gekko Non-technical books, field guides, and pockets guides are not listed

Gray (1842) described Gecko Smithii from "Prince of Wales’ Island" (= Penang Island, Penang, Peninsular Malaysia). Cantor (1847) -apparently unaware of Gray’s previous description-created the junior synonym, Platydactylus Stentor , by describing additional material from “Pinang” (the Malay and Thai phonetic spelling of Penang) Island. Giebel (1861) described three new species of Platydactylus , one of which was P. albomaculatus from "Insel Bangka" (= Bangka Island, Bangka Belitung Province, Sumatra, Indonesia). Based on the descriptions of Gray (1842) and Cantor (1847), Günther (1864) removed Cantor’s P. Stentor from the genus Platydactylus and placed it in the genus " Gecko ". Günther (1864), however, made no mention of P. albomaculatus , and thus that name remained valid and his taxonomy was followed by several prominent authors of the time (e.g. Boulenger 1889, 1890, 1912; Müller 1895 first report from Sulawesi; Flower 1896, 1899; de Rooij 1915 and Smith 1930). Boettger (1886) synonymized Gecko Stentor Cantor from "Insel Nias" with ( Gecko ) Gecko fasciolatus (sic) Günther (1867). Additionally, Stoliczka’s (1870) description of a specimen from Java as Gecko Smithii was most likely based on a specimen of Gekko gecko . It wasn’t until Smith (1935) stated “Gray’s description of Gekko smithi , brief though it is, cannot well apply to any other Gecko coming from Penang; I therefore reinstate his name, which has priority over Gecko stentor ." that Platydactylus Stentor formally became recognized as a junior synonym of G. smithi . Smith (1935) stated that G. smithi ranged throughout the Malay Peninsula as far north as Pattani [Thailand] and the Malay Archipelago. Grossmann and Ulber (1990) reverted to the original spelling of the specific epithet " Gekko smithii " following Mertens (1946).

Comparing the short description of the two syntypes of Platydactylus albomaculatus by Giebel (1861) and the slightly more detailed redescription of a lectotype (the larger of the two syntypes) by Müller (1941), we cannot differentiate them from the specimens examined from Sumatra, islands off the west coast of Borneo, or G. smithii . They can be putatively separated from the eastern peninsular lineage by the male having 15 precloacal pores as opposed to 6-13 (n=16) and having dark blotching on the body as opposed to its absence or reduction to fine speckling (Fig. 10G ). Müller (1941) noted that the lectotype had a dark-brown horseshoe-shaped band on the back of the head running from eye to eye that was bordered posteriorly by a row of moderately large white blotches. Only some Sumatran specimens have a dark nuchal band and the white blotches are often fused, forming a thin white band that is unique to specimens from Sumatra and its adjacent islands (Fig. 10 ). Bangka Island is Indonesia’s ninth largest island and lies less than 15 km off the southeastern coast of Sumatra from where G. " Gekko smithii " have been reported (e.g. de Rooij 1915; Fig. 10 ). The seaway between Bangka Island and mainland Sumatra is less than 25 m deep and these landmasses had broad intermittent subaerial connections with one another, Peninsular Malaysia, and Borneo over the last 10 million years ( Hall 2013). Nonetheless, lacking sequence data from topotypic material and mainland Sumatra, the possibility exists, however unlikely, that the Bangka Island population is not conspecific with other Sumatran populations. The molecular data clearly indicate that the Nias and Banyak Islands populations are not G. smithii or any other lineage. Therefore, based on current geography and geographic history, we refer to these insular populations and mainland Sumatran populations as G. cf. albomaculatus . Investigations on these populations are currently underway (Grismer et al. unpubl.).

Figures

Figure 10. Distribution and color pattern variation in Gekko albomaculatus and G. cf. albomaculatus in Sumatra A. LSUDPC 12933 from Gunung Leuser NP, North Sumatra, Sumatra, Indonesia. B. LSUDPC 12934 (JAM 10261) from Pulau Nias, Sumatra, Indonesia. C. LSUDPC 12940 from Andalas University, Sumatra Barat, Sumatra, Indonesia. D. LSUDPC 12944 from Kecamatan Ngambur, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia. E. LSUDPC 12952 from Sum, Sumatra, Indonesia. F. LSUDPC 12924 from Sumber Rejio, Bengkuat Belimbing, Sumatra, Indonesia. G. Syntypes of G. albomaculatus from Banka Island, Sumatra, Indonesia. Unannotated circles denote localities of specimens or photographs examined here or verified from other publications as well as vouchered samples in the literature. Photographs by Andrea Molyneaux (A), Jimmy A. McGuire (B), Eric N. Smith (C, E), C. J. Franklin (D), Photo from Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (F), and Frank Tillack (G).