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Gekko japonicus (DUMÉRIL & BIBRON, 1836)

IUCN Red List - Gekko japonicus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Schlegel's Japanese Gecko
Chinese: 多疣壁虎 
SynonymPlatydactylus Japonicus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1836: 337
Platydactylus jamori TEMMINCK & SCHLEGEL 1838: 103
Hemidactylus nanus CANTOR 1842: 482
Gecko japonicus — BOULENGER 1885: 188
Gecko japonicus — GÜNTHER 1888: 169
Platydactylus yamori FRITZE 1891: 239 (invalid emendation fide KLUGE 1993)
Gekko japonicus — STEJNEGER 1907: 165
Gekko japonicus — STEJNEGER 1926: 37
Gekko japonicus — SCHMIDT 1927
Luperosaurus amissus TAYLOR 1962 (fide BROWN & ALCALA 1978)
Gekko japonicus — OTA 1989: 234
Gekko japonicus — KLUGE 1993
Gekko japonicus — RÖSLER 2000: 81
Gekko japonicus — LUU et al. 2014
Gekko (Japonigekko) japonicus — WOOD et al. 2019
Gekko (Japonigekko) japonicus — WOOD et al. 2020 
DistributionE China (west to eastern Sichuan and northward to southern Shaanxi and Gansu, Fujian),
S Korea,
Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Yakushima; Ryukyu Islands).

Type locality: Japan  
Reproductionoviparous; temperature-dependent sex determination (Li et al. 2022) 
TypesType: BMNH 1946.8.26.9-10 (and possibly additional specimens).
Holotype: ZMUC [nanus] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1084 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: May include Gekko tawaensis (see that entry). See Sherborn & Jentink 1895 for details on publication dates.

Authorship: Duméril & Bibron cite the species as “Platydactylus Japonicus SCHLEGEL” but Schlegel did not provide a description anywhere, hence the authorship is solely with Duméril & Bibron according to Article 50.1.1. in the Code.

Distribution: Reports of G. japonicus from the Philippines are in error. “Based on a single specimen reportedly from Tablas, the species was "discovered" in a big jar of house geckos in the KU collection, described very late by Taylor (as a Luperosaurus, in error; see Taylor 1962) and Ota et al. later tracked down the synonomy to G. hokouensis (not japonicus; see OTA et al. 1989). [... The record of G. hokouensis from the Philippines is probably] based on a specimen from Japan that Taylor accidentally mixed into his Philippine collections” [R. Brown, pers. comm.]. Reports from Vietnam may be erroneous (Ota et al. 1995). Not listed for Vietnam by (fide SANG et al. 2009, Luu et al. 2015).

Genome: the genome of this species has been sequenced by Liu et al. 2015.

Type species: Gekko (Japonigekko) japonicus is the type species of the subgenus Japonigekko WOOD et al. 2019, 2020. The subgenus Japonigekko includes taxa from the G. japonicus group of Rösler et al. (2011). See Rösler et al. (2011) for discussions of the considerable interspecific morphological variability and lengthy taxonomic controversy that characterizes this assemblage (Boulenger, 1885, 1907; Smith, 1935; Bourret, 1937; Bauer, 1994; Ota et al., 1995; Nguyen et al., 2009).

Comparisons: for a list of morphological characters among 28 members of the japonicus group (mostly identical to the subgenus Japonigekko), see Hou et al. 2021 and Ma et al. 2024: 298 (Table 5). 
EtymologyJaponigekko is a masculine noun, referring to geographic origin (Japan) of the type species (G. japonicus). Wood et al. 2019 use the spelling “Japon” following Schlegel (1836) who used this French spelling in the construction of the name Platydactylus japonicus. 
References
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