Pachydactylus latirostris HEWITT 1923
A pair of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Male of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Male of Pachydactylus latirostris. S-Namibia.
© M. Barts.
Female of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Male of Pachydactylus latirostris. N-Namibia.
© W.D. Haacke.
Female of Pachydactylus latirostris. SW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Female of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Close up view of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Copula in a terrarium Pachydactylus latirostris.
© K. Grießhammer.
Captive born animal of Pachydactylus latirostris.
© M. Barts.
Dead embryo with two heads Pachydactylus latirostris.
© M. Barts.
Habitat of Pachydactylus latirostris. NW-Südafrika.
© M. Barts.
Originalbeschreibung / Original description
Nostril encircled by three small scales, the innermost widely separated from its neighbour on the other side of the median line by several very small scales (text-fig. 2). Rostral scale transversely elongated, more than twice as broad as deep, the upper edge truncated in the middle and not forming a median angle. Eight upper labials and 9 lower labials. The scales on the snout are not so definitely granular as in mariquensis, but are more or less imbricate and flattened; and on the dorsal surface of the body the scales are also more distinctly imbricate than in that species. On each side of the base of the tail there are three enlarged, scales in the male. Dorsal surfaces greyish with dark markings, which, however, do not form complete cross stripes: in two of the specimens there are 5 dark patches along the middle of the back; these are more or less quadrangular but constricted anteroposteriorly, the front and hind borders being V-shaped; there is also a trace of a semi-circular stripe passing backwards from the eyes around the occiput (PI. IV, fig. 3). In the third specimen these markings are completely broken up into irregular small spots and freckles.
From snout to vent the largest example measures 44 mm.
Types. — Two specimens in the AlbanyMuseum, Grahamstown, and one specimen in the NatalMuseum, Pietermaritzburg.
Hab. — Victoria West. Cape Province, collected by Mr. B. Marais.
Pachydactylus latirostris is closely related to P. mariquensis Smith, agreeing therewith in general form but differing in the scaling of the snout and in the colour-pattern; it is also appreciably smaller than mariquensis.
In the Kimberley Museum there is a specimen referable to latirostris, taken between Zwaart Modder and Reitfontein by Miss Lennox. This is perhaps a little more strongly imbricate in its scaling than are the Victoria West specimens, but the snout characters are identical. The colour-markings take the form of imperfect wavy cross lines, which represent the darker borders of the broad cross bands of mariquensis.
The three species, mariquensis, austeni and latirostris, together with their ally maculatus, are on the digital character amongst the most primitive members of the genus, as the scales on the ventral surfaces of the digits show no modification whatever except at the expanded end. In the following species there is a series of transversely elongated scales along the whole length of the digits ventrally: purcelli, brunnthaleri, punctatus, ocellatus, and probably also serval and amoenus, most of which are western in distribution.
The species with heterogeneous dorsal scaling are of the mariquensis type in bibroni, rugosus, oshaughnessyi and capensis, but there is a tendency in capensis and its allies towards an enlargement and broadening of some of the inferomedian digital scales; this is most marked in tigrinus, which presents conditions more or less intermediate between the two sections. This the character is at any rate not of generic importance.