''Sphaerodactylus richardi'', also known
commonly as Richard's banded sphaero or the Zapata big-scaled sphaero, is a small species of
gecko
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from .
Geckos ar ...
, a
lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
in the
family Sphaerodactylidae. The species is
endemic to
Cuba.
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 ...
, ''richardi'', is in honor of American herpetologist
Richard Thomas.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Sphaerodactylus richardi'', p. 221).]
Taxonomy
''Sphaerodactylus richardi'' belongs to the ''scaber'' group. Other species in the group are ''
S. oliveri'', ''
S. scaber'', and ''
S. storeyae''.
[ Hedges & Garrido (1993).]
Description
''Sphaerodactylus richardi'' may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of . It has large non-overlapping
dorsal scales, except for a zone of mid-dorsal granular scales which is three scales wide. Adults have a dorsal color pattern of 5-6 bold dark crossbands on the body.
[
]
Habitat
The preferred habitats of ''S. richardi'' are forest, shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...
, and marine intertidal.
Reproduction
''Sphaerodactylus richardi'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Hedges SB, Garrido OH (1993). "A New Species of Gecko (''Sphaerodactylus'') from Central Cuba". ''Journal of Herpetology'' 27 (3): 300–306. (''Sphaerodatylus richardi'', new species). (in English, with an abstract in Spanish).
* Rösler H (2000). "''Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha)''". ''Gekkota'' 2: 28–153. (''Sphaerodactylus richardi'', p. 114). (in German).
Sphaerodactylus
Endemic fauna of Cuba
Reptiles of Cuba
Reptiles described in 1993
Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges
{{Sphaerodactylus-stub