You are here » home › search results › Lygodactylus heeneni

Lygodactylus heeneni DE WITTE, 1933

iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Lygodactylus heeneni?

Add your own observation of
Lygodactylus heeneni »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymLygodactylus heeneni DE WITTE 1933: 185
Lygodactylus angularis heeneni — LOVERIDGE 1947: 222
Lygodactylus angularis heeneni — DE WITTE 1953
Lygodactylus angularis heeneni — PERRET 1963
Lygodactylus heeneni — PASTEUR 1965
Lygodactylus angularis heeneni —BROADLEY 1991: 522
Lygodactylus heeneni —BROADLEY 1998
Lygodactylus heeneni — HAAGNER et al. 2000
Lygodactylus (Lygodactylus) angularis heeneni — RÖSLER 2000: 92
Lygodactylus heeneni — BROADLEY & COTTERILL 2004
Lygodactylus heeneni — PIETERSEN et al. 2021
Lygodactylus heeneni — LOBÓN-ROVIRA et al. 2023
Lygodactylus heeneni — LOBÓN-ROVIRA et al. 2026 
DistributionDemocratic Republic of Congo (S Zaire), Zambia

Type locality: Kapiri, Lualaba Province, DRC  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: RMCA (= MRAC) 8477 (cited as R.G. Musée du Congo 8477) 
DiagnosisUnfortunately 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 1972 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: Lobón-Rovira et al. 2026 suggested to synonymize L. paurospilus with L. heeneni. Pasteur (1965) already argued that L. paurospilus cannot be morphologically distinguished from L. heeneni because of the variation in the number of precloacal pores (6–9) found in the material reported by de Witte (1953), and he consequently regarded L. paurospilus as a junior synonym of the latter taxon. Lobón-Rovira et al. 2024 recognized L. paurospilus and L. heeneni as distinct species, but given that L. paurospilus is only known from two localities and little information on variation is available, it is likely that paurospilus is a local variant. The 16S uncorrected pairwise genetic distances among the L. heeneni and L. paurospilus samples range from 4.0–6.4% (Lobón-Rovira et al. 2026) and are thus borderline between inter- and intraspecific.

Distribution: for a map of localities see Lobón-Rovira et al. 2026: 6 (Fig. 4). 
EtymologyL. a. heeneni was named after M. HEENEN, Gouvernor of the Province of Katanga. 
References
  • Bannikov, A. G., and l. S. Darevsky. 1969. Lygodactylus angularis grzimeki subsp. n. Bannikov et Darevsky from the Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania [in Russian]. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 48:452—455.
  • Branch, W.R.; Rödel, M.-O. & Marais, J. 2005. Herpetological survey of the Niassa Game Reserve, northern Mozambique - Part I: Reptiles. Salamandra 41 (4): 195-214 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D. G. & HOWELL, K. M. 1991. A check list of the reptiles of Tanzania, with synoptic keys. Syntarsus 1: 1—70
  • Broadley, D.G. 1991. The Herpetofauna of Northern Mwinilunga Distr., Northw. Zambia. Arnoldia Zimbabwe 9 (37): 519-538
  • Broadley, D.G. 1998. The reptilian fauna of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa). In: Schmidt, K.P. and Noble, G.K., Contributions to the Herpetology of the Belgian Congo... [reprint of the 1919 and 1923 papers]. SSAR Facsimile reprints in Herpetology, 780 pp.
  • Castiglia, Riccardo and Flavia Annesi 2011. The phylogenetic position of Lygodactylus angularis and the utility of using the 16S rDNA gene for delimiting species in Lygodactylus (Squamata, Gekkonidae). Acta Herpetologica 6 (1): 35-45 - get paper here
  • Haagner,G.V.; Branch,W.R. & Haagner,A.J.F. 2000. Notes on a collection of reptiles from Zambia and adjacent areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Annals of the Eastern Cape Museum 1: 1 – 25
  • Lobón-Rovira, J., Bauer, A. M., Vaz Pinto, P., Trape, J. F., Conradie, W., Kusamba, C., Júlio, T., Cael, G., Stanley, E.L., Hughes, D. F., Behangana, M.,Masudi, F.M., Pauwels, O.S.G. & Greenbaum, E. 2023. Integrative revision of the Lygodactylus gutturalis (Bocage, 1873) complex unveils extensive cryptic diversity and traces its evolutionary history. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201 (2): 447–492 [print 2024] - get paper here
  • Lobón-Rovira, J., Devaney, C., Kusamba, C., & Greenbaum, E. 2026. More Knowledge, Fewer Species: New Insights into the Systematics of Lygodactylus heeneni de Witte 1933 (Gekkota: Gekkonidae) of Central Africa. Taxonomy, 6(1), 9 - get paper here
  • Pietersen, Darren, Verburgt, Luke & Davies, John 2021. Snakes and other reptiles of Zambia and Malawi. Struik Nature / Penguin Random House South Africa, 376 pp., ISBN 9781775847373
  • PORTIK, DANIEL M.; SCOTT L. TRAVERS, AARON M. BAUER, WILLIAM R. BRANCH 2013. A new species of Lygodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) endemic to Mount Namuli, an isolated ‘sky island’ of northern Mozambique. Zootaxa 3710 (5): 415–435 - get paper here
  • Röll, B. 2018. Tagaktive, kleine Geckos – die Gattung Lygodactylus. Reptilia 23 (132): 16-23
  • 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. & Rotich, D. 1997. An annotated checklist of the lizards of Kenya. J. East African Nat. Hist. 86: 61-83
  • 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
  • Witte, G. F. de 1933. Reptiles récoltés au Conge Belge par le Dr. H. Schouteden et par M. G.-F. Witte. Ann. Mus. Conge belge Zool. Ser. 1 Tome III: 53-100.
  • Witte, G. F. de 1933. Description de Reptiles nouveaux provenant du Katanga (1930-31). Rev. Zool. Bot. afr., Bruxelles, 23 (2): 185-192
  • Witte, G. F. de 1953. Reptiles. Exploration du Parc National de l'Upemba. Mission G. F. de Witte en collaboration avec W. Adam, A. Janssens, L. Van Meel et R. Verheyen (1946–1949). Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge. Brussels, vol. 6, 322 pp. - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator