''Lepidodactylus'' is a large
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
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 ...
s, commonly known as scaly-toed geckos and closely related to
house gecko
__NOTOC__
''Hemidactylus'' is a genus of the common gecko family, Gekkonidae. It has 189 described species, newfound ones being described every few years. These geckos are found in all the tropical regions of the world, extending into the subtro ...
s or
dtellas.
Geographic range
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
in the genus ''Lepidodactylus'' are found from Southeast Asia to Indo-Australia and
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
.
Species
There are 45 described species in this genus, which are considered valid.
[ www.reptile-database.org.]
‡ ''
Nota bene
(, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well".
It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature
and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atte ...
'': A
taxon author (
binomial authority
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
) in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Lepidodactylus''.
Eponyms
The
specific name, ''browni'', is in honor of American herpetologist
Walter Creighton Brown.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Lepidodactylus browni'', p. 41; ''L. christiani'', p. 54; ''L. gardineri'', p. 97; ''L. guppyi'', p. 112; ''L. herrei'', p. 122; ''L. manni'', p. 167; ''L. oorti'', p. 195; ''L. woodfordi'', p. 289).]
The specific name, ''christiani'', is in honor of U.S. Army Lieutenant Ralph L. Christian.
The specific name, ''gardineri'', is in honor of British zoologist
John Stanley Gardiner
John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist.
Biography
Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...
.
The specific name, ''guppyi'', is in honor of British naturalist
Henry Brougham Guppy
Henry Brougham Guppy (23 December 1854 – 23 April 1926) was a British surgeon, geologist, botanist and photographer. He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1917.
Life
He was born in Falmouth on the English coast the son of Dr. Thomas Stokes ...
.
The specific name, ''herrei'', is in honor of American ichthyologist
Albert William Herre
Albert William Christian Theodore Herre (September 16, 1868 – January 16, 1962) was an American ichthyologist and lichenologist. Herre was born in 1868 in Toledo, Ohio. He was an alumnus of Stanford University, where he received a Bachelor of ...
.
The specific name, ''manni'', is in honor of American entomologist
William Montana Mann.
The specific name, ''oorti'', is in honor of Dutch ornithologist
Eduard Daniël van Oort
Eduard Daniël van Oort (31 October 1876 in Barneveld, Gelderland – 21 September 1933 in Leiden) was a Dutch ornithologist.
Oort was in charge of the bird collections at the Rijksmuseum of Natural History in Leiden; in 1915 he was made ...
.
The specific name, ''woodfordi'', is in honor of British naturalist
Charles Morris Woodford
Charles Morris Woodford (30 October 1852 – 4 October 1927) was a British naturalist and government minister active in the Solomon Islands. He became the first Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands Protectorate, serving from 1896 (three ...
.
References
Further reading
*
Fitzinger L (1843). ''Systema Reptilium, Fasciculus Primus, Amblyglossae.'' Vienna: Braumüller & Seidel. 106 pp. + indices. (''Lepidodactylus'', new genus, p. 98). (in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
).
{{Taxonbar, from=Q138581
Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger
Lizard genera