Gehyra lazelli (WELLS & WELLINGTON, 1985)

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Higher Taxa	Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies
Common Names
Synonym	Dactyloperus lazelli WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985 Dactyloperus annetteae WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985: 11 Gehyra lazelli — SISTROM et al. 2009 Gehyra lazelli — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Distribution	Australia (Gawler, Flinders and Mt Lofty Ranges of South Australia, extending eastwards into SC New South Wales and SW to the coast of the Great Australian Bight as far west as Ceduna and the Nuyts Archipelago) Type locality: “Mt Colley”, Cocoparra National Park, near Griffith, N.S.W., Australia. Type locality [annettae]: Willandra National Park, near Hillston, N.S.W.
Reproduction	oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022)
Types	Holotype: AMS R116972 (formerly AMS Field Series 16793), adult male Holotype: AMS R116971 (formerly AMS Field Series 16789) [annettae]
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: A moderate sized Gehyra (max. Snout-vent length (SVL) 59 mm) with divided subdigital lamellae, two or three pairs of enlarged chin shields, a dorsal pattern combining small pale spots and irregular, dark spots or short wavy lines, and a diploid chromosome number of 44. Most similar to G. nana, from which it differs in grey to brown rather than rufous dorsal colouring with more prominent black flecks and lines. Gehyra lazelli is sympatric or parapatric with two other species, G. variegata (2n=40a form) and G. purpurascens. Distinguished from G. variegata by fine spotted rather than ladder-like colour pattern, the white spots not margining the dark markings, slightly larger size, higher preanal pore counts and (in syntopy) rockdwelling rather than arboreal habits. Distinguished from G. purpurascens (2n=40c) by bolder spotted pattern, with larger black flecks and wavy lines and numerous white spots present in adults, and smaller size (max. SVL of G. purpurascens 65 mm).
Comment
Etymology	Named for Brian Lazell, herpetologist of Sydney, New South Wales.
References	Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here SISTROM, M.; EDWARDS, D.L.; DONNELLAN, S.; HUTCHINSON, M. 2012. Morphological differentiation correlates with ecological but not with genetic divergence in a Gehyra gecko. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25 (4): 647-660 - get paper here Sistrom, M.J.; Hutchinson, M.N.; Hutchinson, R.G. & Donnellan, S.C. 2009. Molecular phylogeny of Australian Gehyra (Squamata: Gekkonidae) and taxonomic revision of Gehyra variegata in south-eastern Australia. Zootaxa 2277: 14–32 - get paper here Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp. Wells, R. W. and Wellington, C. R. 1985. A classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia. Australian Journal of Herpetology, Supplementary Series (1): 1-61 [sometimes cited as 1983] - get paper here Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp. Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Gekkonidae/Gehyra/lazelli http://www.wildherps.com/families/Tropiduridae.html Google images

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