Hemidactylus turcicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Gholamifard, Ali & Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, 2011, Distribution of Hemidactylus geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in Fars Province, Southern Iran, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 5 (1), pp. 1-6 : 4

Hemidactylus turcicus (Linnaeus, 1758) . Mediterranean house gecko

The type locality of this species is “in Oriente,” restricted to Asiatic Turkey ( Leviton et al. 1992; Anderson 1999). The Mediterranean house gecko is native to countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and extends east to India and south to Somalia. However, H. turcicus has spread to several New World countries including Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, and the United States ( Anderson 1999; Farallo et al. 2009). In Iran, it has been collected primarily in port towns of the Persian Gulf, although there are scattered inland records (Shahbazan, Qazvin, Rig Mati) as is also the case in Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, but all of these localities lie along trade routes ( Anderson 1999). In Iran, this species has been recorded from Sistan and Baluchistan, Kerman, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, Ilam, and Qazvin Provinces ( Rastegar-Pouyani et al. 2006). Populations of this species in Iran are considered as H. t. turcicus ( Rastegar-Pouyani et al. 2006, 2008). Both H. turcicus and H. robustus have been recorded for the herpetofauna of Iran by Rastegar-Pouyani et al. (2008); however, populations of H. turcicus in Iran are referred as H. robustus by Bauer et al. (2006) as well as Sindaco and Jeremčenko (2008). Hemidactylus robustus , of coastal Northeast Africa and Arabia, Iran and Pakistan ( Baha El Din 2005; Bauer et al. 2006; Carranza and Arnold 2006), has often been regarded as conspecific with H. turcicus , and its complex nomenclatorial history is most recently reviewed by Moravec and Böhme (1997). Carranza and Arnold (2006) in their molecular study confirmed separate status of both taxa. According to their study, H. robustus populations from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates show approximately 14% genetic divergence from H. turcicus , and the two taxa have recently been found in sympatry on the Red Sea coast of Egypt ( Baha el Din 2005). Iran probably hosts both H. turcicus and H. robustus . Presumably, populations of H. turcicus expanded their distributional range from their area of origin, probably in the Mediterranean region, to northwest of Iran and expanded, or were introduced into other regions of Iran in different ways, and H. robustus was introduced via Arabian Peninsula to Iran and expanded in different directions, as its distribution range is completed in the southern belt of the Iranian Plateau. Baha El Din (2005) stated that human activity highly influenced the current distribution pattern of H. robustus . As well, Caravan routes had spread H. turcicus - like geckos through much of the Middle East ( Anderson 1999). However, the presence and definition of exact distributional ranges of these species, in Iran, needs more material and DNA analyses. According to Moravec and Böhme (1997), H. robustus differs markedly from H. t. turcicus in its robust head, body, and tail, in very small and weakly keeled tail tubercles and in having an inconspicuous color pattern. According to this study, it seems that H. turcicus has a smaller distribution range than its congeners in Fars Province.