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Orraya occultus (COUPER, COVACEVICH & MORITZ, 1993)

IUCN Red List - Orraya occultus - Data Deficient, DD
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Higher TaxaCarphodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Long-necked Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko 
SynonymSaltuarius occultus COUPER, COVACEVICH & MORITZ 1993: 104
Saltuarius occultus — COGGER 2000: 743
Orraya occultus — COUPER, SCHNEIDER, HOSKIN, COVACEVICH, 2000
Orraya occultus — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Orraya occultus — COGGER 2014: 270
Orraya occultus — CHAPPLE et al. 2019: 106 
DistributionAustralia (Queensland)

Type locality: Peach Ck, Mcnwraith Ra., 19km ENE of Mt Croll (13°45', 143°19') FNEQ.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: QM J37040 (Queensland Museum), female 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: S. occultus is a moderately spinose, mediumsized Saltuarius (maximum SVL 108mm). An extremely long, thin neck, a function of elongate neck vertebrae (Fig. lOa), mean % NUSVL 24.2; a series of enlarged, spinose tubercles fringing the regenerated tail; and three lumbar vertebrae (Fig. 12b) separate it from all its congeners. S. occultus resembles S. cornutus and S. salebrosus in having male pre-anal pores (Fig. 5a-c). These are not present in S. swaini (Fig. 5d). In S. occultus they are very pronounced, and form a raised cluster (vs not pronounced, only just visible without magnification, and flat) [from COUPER et al. 1993]. 
CommentType Species: Saltuarius occultus is the type species of the genus Orraya COUPER et al. 1993.

Abundance: only known from the type locality (Meiri et al. 2017).

Conservation: this is one of the most-threatened reptile species in Australia (Geyle et al. 2021).

Reference images: see Uetz et al. 2024 for high-resolution reference images for this species. 
EtymologyNamed after the Latin occultus = 'hidden' and so, difficult to find.

The genus Orraya was named after the Morrobalama language word tor 'older brother' (Gunnawanu N. & Kllakulla, M., 1994) refering to the phylogenetic relationship between occultus and its Phyllurus and Saltuarius 'siblings'. Peach Ck, the type locality of Orraya occultus drains the Mcllvvraith Ra. the traditional land of the Morrobalarna." (Couper et al., 2000). 
References
  • Anthony, Michael 1998. Top of the Range gecko - The Saltuarius occultus story. Dactylus 3 (3): 121-126
  • 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.
  • Couper, P. J., SCHNEIDER, C. J., HOSKIN, C. J. & J. A. COVACEVICH 2000. Australian leaf-tailed geckos: phylogeny, a new genus, two new species and other new data. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 45 (2): 253-265 - get paper here
  • Couper, P.J.; Covacevich, J.A. & Moritz, C. 1993. A review of the leaf-tailed geckos endemic to eastern Australia: a new genus, four new species, and other new data. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 34 (1): 95-124 - get paper here
  • Geyle, H. M., Tingley, R., Amy, A., Cogger, H., Couper, P., Cowan, M., Craig, M., Doughty, P., Driscoll, D., Ellis, R., Emery, J-P., Fenner, A., Gardner, M., Garnett, S., Gillespie, G., Greenless, M., Hoskin, C., Keogh, S., Lloyd, R., ... Chapple, D. 2020. Reptiles on the brink: Identifying the Australian terrestrial snake and lizard species most at risk of extinction. Pacific Conservation Biology - get paper here
  • Hoskin, C.J.; P. J. Couper & C. J. Schneider 2003. A New Species of Phyllurus (Lacertailia: Gekkonidae) and a Revised Phylogeny and Key for the Australian Leaf-tailed Geckos. Australian Journal of Zoology 51 (2): 153-164 - get paper here
  • Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zoltán T. Nagy, Cristiano d 2017. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Diversity and Distributions - get paper here
  • Uetz, P.H.; Patel, M.; Gbadamosi, Z.; Nguyen, A.; Shoope, S. 2024. A Reference Database of Reptile Images. Taxonomy 4: 723–732 - get paper here
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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