''Phyllodactylus reissii'', also known
commonly as Peters' leaf-toed gecko
[ or the coastal leaf-toed gecko,]lizard
Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...
in the family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Phyllodactylidae
The Phyllodactylidae are a family of geckos (Gekkota) consisting of 163 species in 10 genera, distributed throughout the New World, North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The family was first delineated based on a molecular phylogenetic analys ...
. The species is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to northwestern South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
.
Etymology
The specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''reissii'', is in honor of Carl Reiss who collected the holotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
, while he was the Prussian consul in Guayaquil
Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...
, Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
.[ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Phyllodactylus reissii'', p. 219).]
Geographic range
''P. reissii'' is native to Ecuador and Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
.[ www.reptile-database.org.] There is an introduced population in the Galapagos.[
]
Habitat
The natural habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s of ''P. reissii'' are forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
, shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...
, and desert
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...
, at altitudes of .[
]
Description
''P. reissii'' is large for its genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
. Adults may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of .[
]
Reproduction
''P. reissii'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...
. The adult female lays a clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...
of two eggs. Hatchlings have a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of .[
]
References
Further reading
* Boulenger GA (1885). ''Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume I. Geckonidæ, Eublepharidæ, Uroplatidæ, Pygopodidæ, Agamidæ.'' London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 436 pp. + Plates I–XXXII. (''Phyllodactylus reissii'', p. 80).
* Goldberg SR (2007). "Notes on reproduction of Peters' Leaf-toed Gecko, ''Phyllodactylus reissii'' (Squamata, Gekkonidae), from Peru". ''Phyllomedusa'' 6 (2): 147–150.
* Koch C, Flecks M, Venegas PJ, Bialke P, Valverde S, Rödder D (2016). "Applying n-dimensional hypervolumes for species delimitation: unexpected molecular, morphological, and ecological diversity in the Leaf-Toed Gecko ''Phyllodactylus reissii'' Peters, 1862 (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae) from northern Peru". ''Zootaxa'' 4161 (1): 041–080.
* Peters W (1862). "''Über einen neuen'' Phyllodactylus ''aus Guayaquil'' ". ''Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin'' 1862: 626–627. (''Phyllodactylus reissii'', new species). (in German and Latin).
* Rösler H (2000). "''Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha)''". ''Gekkota'' 2: 28–153. (''Phyllodactylus reissii'', p. 104). (in German).
Phyllodactylus
Reptiles of Ecuador
Reptiles of Peru
Reptiles described in 1862
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters
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