Pachydactylus kladaroderma BRANCH, BAUER & GOOD 1996
Male of Pachydactylus kladaroderma.
© M. Barts.
Female of Pachydactylus kladaroderma.
© M. Barts.
Habitat of Pachydactylus kladaroderma.
© M. Barts.
Hatch of Pachydactylus kladaroderma.
© F. Girard.
Originalbeschreibung/Original description
BRANCH, B., A. BAUER & W. GOOD (1996): A rewiev of the Namaqua gecko, Pachydactylus namaquensis from southern Africa, with the description of two new species. — S. Afr. Jour. Zool., 31(2): 53-69 — Terra typica: "Dolerite Tovvers", Molteno Pass, Nuweveldberge. Karoo National Park (32° 15'09"S, 22°34'07"E. 1077m: 3222Bc) Western Cape Province.
Etymology:
From the Greek kladaros (easily broken) and derma (skin), with reference to the fragile skin exhibited by this species and several other species of Pachvdactylus to which it may be closely related (see general discussion).
Description: Holotype PEM Rill95, adult female. Head depressed, slightly longer tjian broad and distinct from neck: snout obtusely rounded and 1.43 times the ear to eye distance, and 2.23 times the eye diameter; ear opening an oblique, elongate (height more than twice width), rounded slot that lacks enlarged lobules of tympanic shields; eye relatively large, ringed by small ciliary granules that are only slightly larger on the upper edge, and with a vertical pupil that con-stricts to two pinhole openings in preserved specimens; ros-tral broader than wide, with a scalloped dorsal edge and lateral projections into the nostrils; nasal region distinctly raised, with nostril directed upwards and bordered by three nasals and extensions of the rostral and first supralabial; suture of supranasal and rostral rounded to form a scallop into the dorsal margin of the rostral; supranasals separated by a single granule; mental rectangular, narrower than rostral, more than 1.5 times longer than broad, and bordered by five granules; no enlarged chin shields, infralabials bordered by granules that are largest bordering the first infralabial on each side; eight granules border the mental and adjacent infralabi als; supralabials 12; infralabials 12. Scales on snout and between eyes small and granulär, larger on loreal and canthal region; crown of head covered with small granules with no scattered tubercles; chin and throat covered with small, flat-tened granules. Back covered with granules that are larger than those on crown, intermixed with enlarged tubercles that may be flattened or faintly keeled, and longitudinally oval or rounded, and are denser and more rounded on the sides of the body and absent along backbone; tubercles on thighs rounded and subconical. Belly covered with flattened, smooth, imbri-cate scales, that are enlarged on underside of thighs.
Body stout; limbs short; digits moderate, with distal expan-sions well developed and subdigital lamellae arranged äs fol-lows: fingers I and II, 10 lamellae each; fingers III to V. 11 lamellae each; toe l, 10 lamellae, toe II, II lamellae, toe III, 12 lamellae; toes IV and V, 13 lamellae. The last (most distal) lamella of each digit is paired; all toes have obvious claws, but these are absent on the fingers. The median row of sub digital scales on the basal portion of digits 2—3 times width of adjacent granules and occasionally divided. Original tail (69.34 mm) slightly smaller .than snout-vent length, very broad basally and tapering rapidly; segmented, distinctly so on sides, each segment above with 6-7 rows of scales including towards the distal border of the segment a transverse row of 6-8 enlarged, pointed tubercles, of which the lateral ones are the largest, but not extended into spines; below the scales are large and imbricate, arranged in three rows on the proxi-mal segments, reducing to two rows at midlength, and to a single series of enlarged subcaudals (without eschuchen scales) distally. An oblique row of three enlarged, flattened tubercles occurs on the tail base on either side of the vent. Meristics for holotype and paratype series are shown in Table 3.
Colouration. Dark grey-brown dorsally. with vague blotches that are more conspicuous on the tail, forming a series of six irregulär bands, that are wider distally; ventrum grey, lighter beneath the head, throat, ehest and lower surfaces of the limbs and tail.
Diagnosis: This species may be diagnosed frorn the majority of Pachydactylus species by its large size (maximum SVL 85.9 mm), scattered dorsal tubercles, and fragile skin. It may be diagnosed from P. bibronii and P. laevigaius by the entry of the rostral into the nostril and the absence of co-ossified skin on the head, and from P. tetensis by the absence of preanal pores in males. It differs from P. namaquensis and P haackei by: its more slit-like ear opening (round or squared in P. namaquensis and P. haackei); low numberof granules bor dering the mental (3-6), and mental and adjacent infralabials (5-13); the frequent (79%) occurence of the supralabial enter ing the nostril; and its drab brown base colouration. It is further differentiated from P. haackei on the basis of the 11 fixed allozyme loci differences discussed below, in having a nar-row parietal process of the postfrontal bone, and by having relatively broader pads on the 4th toe, and from P. namaquen sis by the more heterogenous dorsal scalation, smaller cloacal spurs, lack of spine-like tubercles on the lateral surfaces of the tail, and more fragile skin.