Pachydactylus namaquensis (SCLATER 1898)
Habitat of Pachydactylus namaquensis near Springbok/South Africa.
© M. Barts.
Pachydactylus namaquensis.
© M. Barts.
Female of Pachydactylus namaquensis.
© J. Boone.
Originalbeschreibung / Original description
Body stout, limbs short; head longer than broad, depressed, quite distinct from the neck; snout obtuse, longer than the distance of eyeto ear opening, not quite twice the diameter of the ear-opening; ear-opening slightly oval, its greatest diameter half that of the eye, upper part of the snout covered with granules larger than those of the occiput, and having no markedly larger tubercles interspersed among them; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial and three other small scales; rostral rather broader than deep, no median cleft, upper margin scalloped; ten upper and ten lower labials; mental large with rounded posterior border, no chin-shields; throat covered with small granules, body, limbs. and tail covered with granules and tubercles of unequal sizes, the latter fairly evenly distributed, and becoming more conical and pointed on the hinder part of the body, the limbs and tail; vertebral line with no tubercles; belly covered with subquadrangular small smooth scales, juxtaposed bub not imbricate; digits of moderate size, not very unequal in length, the distil joint being dilated into an ovate disc on the uppur surface of which are two enlarged scales which protect the pouch into which the very minute claws can be retracted, under surface of the toes with a series of transverse lamellae, the number on the median toe of the hind foot being thirteen.
Colour. -Above grey with traces of darker spots, some of the large tubercles being black, traces of transverse bands on the tail, below uniform dirty white.
Measuremets. - From snout to vent, 80 mm, tail, 60 mm.; head, 22 mm, width of head, 10 mm; fore limb, 28 mm.; hind limb, 33mm.
This species of Gecko differs from Elasmodactylus tuberculosus, Boulenger, the only species of the genus hitherto described in the slightly different arrangement of the plates round the nostrile, in having dorsal tubercles more widely scattered and more distinct in size, and in their being conical and pointed on the posterior part of the body, also in the number of transverse lamellae beneath the toes.
The type of this species (No. 935 of the Museum register) was obtained in Namaqualand, in the Colony, by Mr. W. C. Soully, and there also exists in the Museum a second specimen, of which, how ever, the history is unfortunately unknown.
The genus is new to South Africa, the only other species of the genus, E. tuberculosus above referred to, having been obtained in the Lower Congo district.