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Lygodactylus klugei (SMITH, MARTIN & SWAIN, 1977)

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Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Kluge's Dwarf Gecko
Portuguese: Bribinha, Lagartixa-Anã, Osguinha 
SynonymVanzoia klugei SMITH, MARTIN & SWAIN 1977: 196
Lygodactylus klugei — BONS & PASTEUR 1977
Lygodactylus klugei — KLUGE 1993
Vanzoia klugei — RÖSLER 2000: 120
Lygodactylus klugei — BORGES-NOJOSA & CARAMASCHI 2003
Lygodactylus klugei — GIPPNER et al. 2021
Ligodactylus klugei — OLIVEIRA et al. 2021 (in error) 
DistributionNE Brazil (Bahia, Ceará, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe)

Type locality: Brasil, Pernambuco,, Carnaubeira  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: MZUSP 22531, an adult male (Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de Sao Paulo) 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (Vanzoia). A member of the family Gekkonidae and the subfamily Gekkoninae, having a spectacle rather than true eyelids but different from the latter group in having in males an escutcheon involving at least thinghs, and a well-developed series of 3-7 preanal pores; no femoral pores; no cloacal sacs or bones; vertebrae amphicelous; dorsal scales minute, equal, not imbricate, narrowly contacting each other between crevice areas occupied by minute granules; 55-68 dorsals around midbody, 17·22 ventrals, totals 77-86; ventrals smooth, imbricate,about 7x dorsals; ear tiny, 2x3 times as wide as external naris; pupil round; rostral with no semidivision: no ear or eye lobules; nostril pierced between nasorostral, postnasae and 1st supraIabial, not touching rostral; no enlarged tubercles on head. Tail cylindrical; when complete, with a terminal adhesive pad; lateral caudals not enlarged. Terminal phalanx on digits 2-5 very short, bearing 3 dorsal and 2 ventral lamellae, arising barely within margin of pad, in a slight notch; 1st digit minute, with minute claw but no pad; 4-5 lamellae on pads of digits 2-5, all deeply notched. Snout-vent lengths of adults 27-31 mm, tail 22-24.5 mm (Smith et al. 1977: 195).


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CommentType Species: Vanzoia klugei is the type species of the genus Vanzoia SMITH, MARTIN & SWAIN 1977.

South American Lygodactylus presumably resulted from a single trans-Atlantic dispersal event 29 Mya (Lanna et al. 2018).

Diet: a large percentage of the diet of this species consists of ants (Lucas et al. 2023). 
EtymologyNamed after Arnold Kluge in recognition of his contributions to Diplodactylus systematics.

The genus Vanzoia was named after Paulo E. Vanzolini, whose nickname was “Vanzo”. The genus name is masculine in gender. 
References
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