Lygodactylus viscatus VAILLANT, 1873

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Higher Taxa	Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Howell’s dwarf gecko, Copal dwarf gecko
Synonym	Lygodactylus howelli PASTEUR & BROADLEY 1988 Lygodactylus somalicus howelli — KLUGE 1993: 21 Lygodactylus (somalicus) howelli — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 9 Lygodactylus viscatus — SPAWLS et al. 2002: 111 Lygodactylus viscatus — RÖLL et al. 2010 Lygodactylus howelli — DE LISLE et al. 2016: 155 Lygodactylus howelli — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 107
Distribution	Tanzania (Zanzibar Island) Type locality: Jozani Forest, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: NMZB 8241 (Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe), male
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: a Lygodactylus of the somalicus species group with a strong dark frontal crossbar between eyes, seven preanal pores, and dorsal granules fine enough to number approximately 250-260 in a rachidian series between rostral and first caudal whorl. Further diagnostic traits in table 1. Geckos of the L. somalicus group can be distinguished from other Lygodactylus with paired subcaudals by an air de famille resulting from the combination of several hard-to-define usual traits (Pasteur, 1964: chapter 5), among them a short nostril and a relatively symmetrical arrangement of parallel scale files in the mental area. L. (somalicus) howelli is like L. (somalicus) somalicus in lacking any gular pattern, and this distinguishes the super species from its sister taxon L. grandisonae (Pasteur & Broadley 1988).
Comment	Status unclear. Synonymy: Lygodactylus kimhowelli appears to be a replacement name for L. howelli. However, Pasteur did not say that explicitly in his (French) paper, and there appear to be 2 different type specimens for the two species, so this situation needs further clarification. Apparently not listed by RÖSLER 2000. PASTEUR (1995) synonymized Lygodactylus (somalicus) howelli with L. viscatus (VAILLANT 1873) which was described as fossil species from a Kopal inclusion.
References	Broadley, D. G. & HOWELL, K. M. 1991. A check list of the reptiles of Tanzania, with synoptic keys. Syntarsus 1: 1—70 Brygoo, E. R. 1990. Les types de Gekkonidés (Reptiles, Sauriens) du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle Catalogue critique. Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. 12 (ser. 4) A (3-4), suppl.: 19-141 Lisle, H.F. de; Nazarov, R.A.; Raw, L.R.G. & Grathwohl, J. 2013. Gekkota: a catalogue of recent species. [type catalogue] Privately published, 387 pp. Pasteur G 1995. Biodiversite et reptiles: diagnoses de sept nouvelles especes fossiles et actuelles du genre de lezards Lygodactylus (Sauria, Gekkonidae). [includes L. succinarius, an extinct species]. Dumerilia 2: 1-21 Pasteur G; Broadley D G 1988. A remote, insular species of the Lygodactylus somalicus superspecies (Sauria: Gekkonidae). Amphibia-Reptilia 9 (3): 237-243 - get paper here Röll, Beate; Heike Pröhl, Klaus-Peter Hoffmann 2010. Multigene phylogenetic analysis of Lygodactylus dwarf geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56 (1): 327-335 - get paper here Rösler, H. 2000. Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha). Gekkota 2: 28-153 Spawls, S.; Howell, K.; Drewes, R.C. & Ashe, J. 2002. A field guide to the reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, 543 pp. [reviews in HR 34: 396 and Afr. J. Herp. 51; 147] - get paper here Spawls, Steve; Kim Howell, Harald Hinkel, Michele Menegon 2018. Field Guide to East African Reptiles. Bloomsbury, 624 pp. - get paper here Vaillant, L. 1873. Sur un geckotien de l’ambre jaune, 2e note. Bull. Soc. Philomat.Paris 10: 97–98 Vaillant, L. 1873. Sur un geckotien de l’ambre jaune. Bull. Soc. Philomat. Paris 10: 65–67 Vaillant, L. 1874. Note rectificative sur l’Hemidactylus viscatus. Bull. Soc. Philomat. Paris 11: 8–9
External links	IUCN Red List Google images

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