Hemidactylus pumilio Boulenger, 1903

Razzetti, Edoardo, Sindaco, Roberto, Grieco, Cristina, Pella, Francesca, Ziliani, Ugo, Pupin, Fabio, Riservato, Elisa, Pellitteri-Rosa, Daniele, Butikofer, Luca, Suleiman, Ahmed Saeed & Al-Aseily, Badar Awadh, 2011, Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia), Zootaxa 2826, pp. 1-44 : 9

Hemidactylus pumilio Boulenger, 1903

Hemidactylus pumilio Boulenger, 1903: 6 —Locus typicus: “ Sokotra (Dahamis, 350 feet, and Jena-agahan, 1200–2500 feet)”. Hemidactylus pumilus Boulenger, 1899: 6 (non Hallowell, 1861).

Hemidactylus pumilio Boulenger, 1903: 6 (substitute name).

Hemidactylus pumilio .— Loveridge, 1947: 130.

Hemidactylus pumilio .—Rösler, 1998: 34.

It is one of the world’s smallest Hemidactylus species and the smaller one in Socotra (SVL up to 32 mm, according to our data); again a common species that was previously recorded for a very limited number of localities. We collected it across most of the island, from the sea level up to 995 m of altitude (Qaroni). Females with fully developed eggs were observed in December, January and May.

Habitat. A nocturnal, ground dwelling gecko observed active on the soil or inactive under stones; mostly observed under scattered stones in flat habitats with hardened soils, usually in less rocky habitats than those preferred by H. homoeolepis , although often the species are encountered in syntopy.

Original data. Fig. 13. NE Coast, Homhil, Momi plateau, Timeroh area, Go'o area, Wadi Di-Fa'rhoh, Wadi Di Asrhon, Firmihin, Dheroh, Diksam plateau, SW Diksam, Central Noged, Qa'arah area, Qabheten area, Meyhah area, Shu'ab area, Ma'alah plateau, Qeysoh, Qalansiyah, Mori West, Terr Ditrur, Wadi Trubah, Hadiboh plain, Kariyah area.

Bibliographic data. Boulenger (1903), Loveridge (1947), Wranik (1998b), Rösler & Wranik (1998, 2004), Schätti & Desvoignes (1999).

General distribution. Endemic to Socotra Island.

Remarks. G. A. Boulenger originally described the species as Hemidactylus pumilus but few years later he redescribed it as Hemidactylus pumilio because the original name was not available as it was a junior homonym of Hemidactylus pumilus Hallowell, 1861 , a Chinese species now in synonymy with Hemidactylus frenatus Duméril and Bibron, 1836 .