Gekko tesselatus XU, MA, CAI, QI, MATSUKOJI, POYARKOV, SUN, JIANG & PENG, 2025
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Gekko tesselatus
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Checkered Gecko” Chinese: 斑纹壁虎 (Bān Wén Bì Hǔ) |
| Synonym | Gekko tesselatus XU, MA, CAI, QI, MATSUKOJI, POYARKOV, SUN, JIANG & PENG in XU et al. 2025: 2228 |
| Distribution | China (NW Sichuan) Type locality: Se’ergu Town, Heishui County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China (31.9531°N, 103.3971°E; 1,847 m asl.). |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: CIB 119371 (Field no. LFR 2025142), adult male,collected by Yuhao Xu, Fanyue Sun, and Jiaxiang Wu on 3 August 2025. Paratypes: (N = 13, all from Sichuan Province, China) • QHU R2025022 (Field no. LFR 2025143, adult female) • QHU R2025023 (Field no. LFR 2025144, adult male) • QHU R2025024 (Field no. LFR 2025145, adult female), with the same collecting information as the holotype • QHU R2025025 (Field no. LFR 2025146, adult male), from Longba Town, Heishui County (31.9855°N, 103.3503°E; 2,047 m asl.), collected by Yuhao Xu, Fanyue Sun and Jiaxiang Wu on August 04, 2025 • QHU R2025026 (Field no. LFR 2025147, subadult male), from Se’ergu Town, Heishui County (31.9290°N, 103.4211°E; 1,827 m asl.), collected by Yuhao Xu, Fanyue Sun and Jiaxiang Wu on August 4, 2025 • SYS r003029 (Field no. LFR 2025148, adult male) • SYS r003030 (Field no. LFR 2025149, adult female), from Se’ergu Town, Heishui County (31.9260°N, 103.44324°E; 1,886 m asl.), collected by Yuhao Xu, Fanyue Sun and Jiaxiang Wu on August 4, 2025 • SYS r003031 (Field no. LFR 2025150, adult female) • SYS r003032 (Field no. LFR 2025151, subadult female), from the same locality as the holotype, collected by Yuhao Xu, Fanyue Sun and Jiaxiang Wu on August 4, 2025 • CIB 119372 (adult female) • CIB 119373 (adult female) • CIB 119374 (adult female) • CIB 119375 (subadult female), from Se’ergu Town, Heishui County (31.9650°N, 103.3966°E; 1,938 m asl.), collected by Bo Cai in July, 2025. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Gekko tesselatus sp. nov. can be diagnosed from other Japonigekko species by the following unique combination of characters: (1) a moderate body size (SVL reaches up to 64.9 mm in males and 72.9 mm in females); (2) nares in contact with the rostral, internasal 0 or 1; (3) two enlarged postmentals, rarely one; (4) flattened dorsal tubercles present from the posterior head through the neck to the anterior portion of the tail, arranged in 12–15 rows at midbody; (5) 130–157 ventral scales between the mental and the cloacal slit; (6) 98–106 midbody scale rows; (7) 31–39 ventral scale rows; (8) subdigital lamellae 7–10 on finger I, 9–12 on finger IV, 7–9 on toe I, and 9–12 on toe IV; (9) webbing absent; (10) 6–8 precloacal pores in males, absent in females; (11) one postcloacal tubercle on each side, rarely two; (12) in life, the dorsum is predominantly greyish brown, with a series of irregular dark transverse bands that are faintly interrupted medially by a narrow vertebral stripe and laterally fragmented and interconnected, forming an irregular, checkerboard-like reticulated pattern. (Xu et al. 2025) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 12798 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
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