Afroedura hawequensis, Mouton & Mostert, 1985

Jacobsen, Niels H. G., Kuhn, Arianna L., Jackman, Todd R. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2014, A phylogenetic analysis of the southern African gecko genus Afroedura Loveridge (Squamata: Gekkonidae), with the description of nine new species from Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, Zootaxa 3846 (4), pp. 451-501 : 467

A. hawequensis Mouton & Mostert, 1985

( Fig. 3 A)

Distribution. Restricted to the fynbos habitats in Hawequa Mountains of the southwestern Western Cape Province, South Africa ( Bauer 2014c) ( Fig. 4 ).

Remarks. This species is the sister to all remaining congeners. It was previously considered a member of the A. africana group ( Mouton & Mostert 1985). The species was previously listed in the South African Red Data Book as “Restricted” ( Mouton 1988) and is currently considered as Near Threatened under IUCN assessment criteria ( Bauer 2014c).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Representatives of the species groups of Afroedura. (A) A. hawequensis group: A. hawequensis (Limietberg, Western Cape, South Africa); (B) A. transvaalica group: A. bogerti (Iona National Park, Namibe Province, Angola); (C) A. transvaalica group: A. transvaalica (30 km west of Musina, Limpopo, South Africa); (D) A. africana group: A. karroica (Sneeuberg Mountains, Eastern Cape, South Africa); (E) A. nivari a group: A. pondolia (Durban, ZwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). Note the strongly verticillate original tail base in A. transvaalica and the bulbous regenerated tail in A. hawequensis. Photo A: Marius Burger, Photos B – C, E: Johan Marais, Photo D: Stuart V. Nielsen.

FIGURE 4. Map of southern Africa showing the approximate distributional ranges of previously described species of Afroedura. Red dots represent localities sampled for the genetic portion of the study. Ranges based on Branch (1998) and Bates et al. (2014) as well as unpublished data. Taxon names follow the conclusions of this paper. Area demarcated by a dashed line is presented in more detail in Figure 6.