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Nephrurus levis DE VIS, 1886

IUCN Red List - Nephrurus levis - Least Concern, LC

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Higher TaxaCarphodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
SubspeciesNephrurus levis levis DE VIS 1886
Nephrurus levis occidentalis STORR 1963
Nephrurus levis pilbarensis STORR 1963 
Common NamesE: Three-lined Knob-tail, Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko, Common Knob-tailed Gecko 
SynonymNephrurus levis DE VIS 1886
Nephrurus laevis — BOULENGER 1887
Nephrurus platyurus — BOULENGER 1887
Nephrurus laevis — STERNFELD 1925: 228
Nephrurus levis — COGGER 2000: 256
Nephrurus levis — OLIVER & BAUER 2011
Nephrurus levis — COGGER 2014: 266
Nephrurus levis — CHAPPLE et al. 2019: 103

Nephrurus levis levis DE VIS 1886
Nephrurus levis DE VIS 1886
Nephrurus platyurus BOULENGER 1886
Nephrurus levis levis — WERMUTH 1965
Nephrurus laevis laevis — BARTS & HULBERT 2004
Nephrurus levis levis — RÖSLER 2018: 23

Nephrurus levis occidentalis STORR 1963
Nephrurus levis occidentalis STORR 1963
Nephrurus occidentalis — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1984
Nephrurus laevis occidentalis — KLUGE 1991
Nephrurus levis occidentalis — LAUBE 2001
Nephrurus levis occidentalis — DE LISLE et al. 2013

Nephrurus levis pilbarensis STORR 1963
Nephrurus levis pilbarensis STORR 1963
Nephrurus pilbarensis — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1984
Nephrurus laevis pilbarensis — KLUGE 1991
Nephrurus levis pilbarensis — RÖSLER 1995: 74
Nephrurus levis pilbarensis — LAUBE 2001
Nephrurus levis pilbarensis — DE LISLE et al. 2013 
DistributionAustralia (arid/semi-arid central Australia west of the Great Dividing Range:
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia,
Western Australia)

occidentalis: central coast of Western Australia
pilbarensis: Pilbara region, Western Australia
levis: remainder of range: most of the arid interior of Australia

Type locality: not given, restriction to Chinchilla, Qld. proposed by Covacevich (1971).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: QM J246
Holotype: WAM R13918, ‘Narryer, WA (26°34'S, 115°56'E)’, N. Armstrong, 1961. Paratypes (14): R61, R7249, R10296, Mullewa, WA; R1904, Yuna, WA; R2255, Waggrakine, WA; R5323, Marilla, WA; R5353, Geraldton, WA; R8210, Warroora, WA; R8708, Onslow, WA; R9007, Cardabia, WA; R9165, Gnaraloo, WA; R13113, Yardie Creek, WA; R13917, Narryer, WA; R14027, North–west Cape, WA; R16864, 8 mi [12.8 km] SW Bullara, WA; R19643, Denham, WA [occidentalis]
Holotype: WAM R14835, ‘12 miles [19.3 km] east of Mundabullangana, WA (20°31'S, 118°13'E)’, G.M Storr and B.T. Clay, 23 February 1962. Paratypes (9): R1640, De Grey, WA; R3890, Well 15, Canning Stock Route, WA; R8520, Shaw River Tank, WA; R11330, Shaw River, WA; R13061–62, R13325, Woodstock, WA; R14833–34, Mundabullangana, WA [pilbarensis] 
Diagnosis 
CommentAbsent from SW- and NE-West Australia, humid regions of southeastern and east coastal Australia and from the tropical north. 
EtymologyPresumably named after the Latin levis (smooth), referring to the relatively smooth scalation (compared to the previously described Nephrurus asper). (G. Shea, pers. comm., 9 Feb 2024) 
References
  • Barbora Augstenová, Eleonora Pensabene, Milan Veselý, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Michail Rovatsos 2021. Are Geckos Special in Sex Determination? Independently Evolved Differentiated ZZ/ZW Sex Chromosomes in Carphodactylid Geckos. Genome Biology and Evolution 13 (7) - get paper here
  • Barts, M. & Hulbert, F. 2004. Die Geckos der Welt. Draco 5 (18): 4-17 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G. A. 1886. Description of a new gecko of the genus Nephrurus. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5)18: 91 - get paper here
  • Bush, B. 1981. Reptiles of the Kalgoorlie-Esperance Region. B. Bush, Perth, 46 pp - get paper here
  • Chapple, David G.; Reid Tingley, Nicola J. Mitchell, Stewart L. Macdonald, J. Scott Keogh, Glenn M. Shea, Philip Bowles, Neil A. Cox, John C. Z. Woinarski 2019. The Action Plan for Australian Lizards and Snakes 2017. CSIRO, 663 pp. DOI: 10.1071/9781486309474 - get paper here
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Covacevich, J. 1971. Amphibian and reptile type specimens in the Queensland Museum. [type catalogue] Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 16: 49-68 - get paper here
  • de Vis, C. W. 1886. On certain geckos in the Queensland Museum. Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales (2) 1 (I): 168—170 [1887] - get paper here
  • Dittmer, D. E., Chapman, T. L. & Bidwell, J. R. 2020. In the shadow of an iconic inselberg: Uluru’s shadow influences climates and reptile assemblage structure at its base. J. Arid Environ. 181, 104179 (2020) - get paper here
  • Ellis, Ryan J.; Paul Doughty and Aaron M. Bauer 2018. An annotated type catalogue of the geckos and pygopods (Squamata: Gekkota: Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae, Gekkonidae, Pygopodidae) in the collection of the Western Australian Museum. Records of the Western Australian Museum 33: 051–094 - get paper here
  • Ferguson, Daniel J.; Mathieson, Michael T.; Eyre, Teresa J. 2015. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE BEADED GECKO Lucasium damaeum AND SMOOTH KNOB-TAILED GECKO Nephrurus levis AT THEIR EASTERN LIMIT IN SOUTHWEST QUEENSLAND. Queensland Naturalist 53 (1-3): 19-28 - get paper here
  • Hallermann, J. 2020. An annotated list of reptiles and amphibians from the 1905 Hamburg expedition to southwest Australia deposited in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Evolutionary Systematics 4: 61 - get paper here
  • Hays, Brenton J.; Joseph R. Bidwell and Drew E. Dittmer 2019. An assessment of thermal preference of two species of Knob-tailed Geckos, Nephrurus levis and N. laevissimus, at Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park. Northern Territory Naturalist 29: 40-53 - get paper here
  • Laube, A. & Langner, C. 2007. Die “Geckos” Australiens. Draco 8 (29): 4-21 - get paper here
  • Laube, Andreas 2001. Captive Maintenance and Breeding of Some Ground Dwelling Australian Geckos, Part 1: Nephrurus laevissimus and Nephrurus levis. Gekko 2 (1): 30-36
  • Maryan, B. 2005. A HERPETOFAUNA HOTSPOT, THE CENTRAL WEST COAST OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Western Australian Naturalist 25 (1): 1-24 - get paper here
  • Oliver, P.M. & Bauer, A.M. 2011. Systematics. and evolution of the Australian knob-tail geckos (Nephrurus, Carphodactylidae, Gekkota): Pleisomorphic grades and biome shifts through the Miocene. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 59 (3): 664-674 - get paper here
  • Pianka, E. R. 1969. Habitat specificity, speciation, and species density in Australian desert lizards. Ecology 50 (3): 498-502 - get paper here
  • Rösler, H. 2018. Haftbar -- Die einzigartige Welt der Geckos. Begleitheft zur Ausstellung im Naturkundemuseum Erfurt Mai-Aug 2018, 96 pp.
  • Rösler, Herbert 1995. Geckos der Welt - Alle Gattungen. Urania, Leipzig, 256 pp.
  • SCHENK, S. 2009. Scheinpaarung bei zwei Weibchen des australischen Geckos Nephrurus levis levis de Vis, 1889 im Terrarium. Sauria 31 (2): 57-59 - get paper here
  • Sternfeld, R. 1925. Beiträge zur Herpetologie Inner-Australiens. Abhandlungen Herausgegeben von der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, 38: 221—251
  • Storr, G. M. 1963. The gekkonid genus Nephrurus in Western Australia, including a new species and three new subspecies. J. Royal Soc. Western Australia, 46:85-90. - get paper here
  • Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp.
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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