Saltuarius cornutus (OGILBY, 1892)
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Saltuarius cornutus?
Saltuarius cornutus
Find more photos by Google images search: 
| Higher Taxa | Carphodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Northern Leaf-tail Gecko, Leaf-tailed Gecko G: Blattschwanzgecko |
| Synonym | Gymnodactylus cornutus OGILBY 1892 Phyllurus lichenosus GÜNTHER 1897 Phyllurus cornutus — GÜNTHER 1897 Phyllurus cornutus — GARMAN 1901: 2 Gymnodactylus platurus — LÖNNBERG & ANDERSSON 1915 Phyllurus cornutus — LOVERIDGE 1947: 299 Gymnodactylus spyrurus — BARRETT 1950 (non Gymnodactylus sphyryrus OG.) Phyllurus cornutus — WERMUTH 1965: 148 Phyllurus cornutum — SWANSON 1976 Phyllurus swaini — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985 Phyllurus cornutus — KLUGE 1993 Saltuarius cornutus — COUPER, COVACEVICH & MORITZ 1993: 100 Saltuarius cornutus — RÖSLER 1995: 78 Saltuarius cornutus — COGGER 2000: 269 Saltuarius cornutus — WILSON & SWAN 2010 Saltuarius cornutus — LIVIGNI 2013: 264 Saltuarius cornutus — COGGER 2014: 278 Saltuarius cornutus — RÖSLER 2018: 23 Saltuarius cornutus — CHAPPLE et al. 2019: 113 |
| Distribution | Australia (four disjunct populations in Queensland): N Cape York Peninsula near Coen, Townsville to Cooktown, Stanthorpe, extreme SE Qeensland. Type locality: Bellenden-Ker Ranges, NE Queensland. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: AMS R749 Cairns district, Qld (Cairns & Grant). Designation by Cogger et al. (1983), as determined by Shea & Sadlier (1999). |
| Diagnosis | DIAGNOSIS (genus): Nostril in contact with rostral (vs not contacting the rostral in Phyllurus); anterior margin of interclavicle flat, or forward projecting without distinct process, Fig. 2a-d (vs bearing a distinct process); axilla not, or only very rarely and shallowly, invaginated (vs always, sometimes deeply invaginated); epipubic cartilage moderate to large, wedge-shaped, Fig. la-d (vs small -moderate, wedge-shaped); male preanal pores present, Fig. 5a-c; save for one species (from COUPER et al. 1993). Original description : “Head large, the snout depressed, the occiput raised above the level of the eye and forming with the snout a moderately convex surface the apical point of which is on a line with the posterior margin of the orbit; the length of the snout is one and three-fourths of the diameter of the eye; the distance between the eye and the nostril is greater than that between the eye and the ear-opening. Forehead and loreal region slightly concave ; supraciliary region so much enlarged and elevated as to leave only a deep narrow fossa between the orbits. Ear-opening elongatepyriform, vertical, five-eighths of the diameter of the eye. Body moderately elongate and attenuated, more than three and a half times the length of the head. Limbs long; digits strong, sub-cylindrical at the base, the distal portion strongly compressed and elevated; claws very strong. Head covered with small granules intermixed with conical or rounded tubercles; granules of the upper eyelid rather larger than those of the head, the tubercles numerous and rounded a strong spinate knob, surmounted by a conical tubercle behind the eye; ear-opening protected in front and above by a tuberculated ridge; rostral subquadrangular, three times as broad as high, almost completely divided by a shallow median groove; nostril directed posteriorly, in contact with the rostral and first labial; labials small, fifteen upper and thirteen lower; mental trapezoidal, bordered posteriorly by five enlarged granules. An arcuate row of six strong conical tubercles, each of which is encircled by smaller tubercles, on the nuchal region body and limbs above covered with small granules, intermixed with rounded, conical, and spinose tubercles; below with flat granules; the two separated by a very distinct flap, the outer margin of which is ornamented with a series of triangular dermal appendages, each of which is provided with a similar smaller appendage in front and behind. Tail of moderate length, depressed, broad, leaf-like, strongly contracted at the base, and attenuated at the tip, covered above by minute granular scales, intermixed, except on a vertebral patch of the leaf-like expansion, with soft triangular appendages.” (Ogibly 1892) Colors. “Chestnutor blackish-brown above, with five large angular whitish spots, undulated or marbled with brown, the first and smallest on the nuchal region, the fifth between the hind limbs ; a whitish band from behind the eye to the ear-opening, and another along the side of the neck immediately in front of the fore limb; labials white, marbled with dark brown limbs above with indications of lighter cross-bars; tail with three broad whitish transverse bands above; below white, uniform or minutely spotted with brown.” (Ogibly 1892) |
| Comment | Phyllurus cornutus seems to be a composite species. Type Species: Gymnodactylus cornutus OGILBY 1892 is the type species of the genus Saltuarius COUPER, COVACEVICH & MORITZ 1993. Distribution: not in NSW; these populations are variously assigned to S. swaini, S. moritzi, S. kateae and S. wyberba now. |
| Etymology | The genus name is from the Latin-'keeper of the forest'. |
| References |
|
| External links |
|