Gekko albofasciolatus (GÜNTHER, 1867)
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Gekko albofasciolatus
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Gecko albo-fasciolatus GÜNTHER 1867: 50 Gecko stentor — SMEDLEY 1931: 103 Gekko albofasciolatus — BAUER et al. 2008 Gekko (Gekko) albofasciolatus — WOOD et al. 2019 Gekko (Gekko) albofasciolatus — WOOD et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | Indonesia (Borneo, Riau, Subi-Besar, Serasan) Type locality: “Polynesia ?” (in error) |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: BMNH 1946.8.25.87 |
| Diagnosis | Günther (1867) noted that Gekko albofasciolatus had a reddish-olive dorsum marbled with grayish and a uniformly whitish venter. Specimens with a reddish-olive dorsum with gray marbling also occur in Sabah (Fig. 9E) and preserved material examined from western and eastern Borneo all have uniform whitish venters, although in life, some have faint-yellow marbling which presumably fades after preservation. Günther (1867) also noted his specimen had “a narrow horseshoe-shaped band across the neck, the convexity being directed backwards”. This is clearly in reference to the nuchal band which was not present in specimens we examined or in photographs we acquired (Fig. 9). Contra to Das (2004, 2007), all Bornean specimens we examined had the characteristic dark Y-shaped marking on the head common to G. smithii and geckos of the eastern peninsular lineage (Figs 7, 8, 9). Grossmann (2006) illustrated a specimen from eastern Kalimantan (i.e. eastern Borneo) with a brown vertebral stripe and small white dorsal flecks. All adult Bornean specimens examined herein, have small white flecks and variable degrees of dorsal striping and ground color (Fig. 9). Therefore, dorsal color pattern is not a reliable character separating populations from Borneo west of the Iran Mountains and populations east of the Iran Mountains. Rösler et al. (2011) noted that northern Bornean populations might be different on the basis of Günther’s G. albofasciolatus (eastern Borneo) having 26 rows of ventral scales versus 29–39 in G. smithii s.l. However, specimens examined from northern Borneo (N = 7) have 23–33 scale rows and a specimen examined from eastern Kalimantan at Kelay (Fig. 9C) has 27 scale rows. Therefore, at this point, other than the spotted nuchal band, there are no morphological or color pattern differences between G. albofasciolatus populations east of the Iran Mountains and populations west of the Iran Mountains (i.e. from the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and the Sultanate of Brunei). The molecular data clearly indicate that the Bornean samples from Sarawak are not conspecific with G. smithii s.s. or any other lineage (Fig. 2). Therefore, the name albofasciolatus, is available for Bornean populations. However, owing to an absence of molecular data from eastern populations, all populations west of the Iran Mountains are referred to as G. cf. albofasciolatus pending the outcome of a molecular analysis (Grismer et al. 2022). |
| Comment | Synonymized with G. smithii by SMITH 1935, but considered as valid by BAUER et al. 2008. Revalidated by Grismer et al. 2022. Distribution: see map in Grismer et al. 2022: 65 (Fig. 9). Abundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). |
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