Pachydactylus punctatus Peters, 1854

Baptista, Ninda L., António, Telmo & Branch, William R., 2019, The herpetofauna of Bicuar National Park and surroundings, southwestern Angola: a preliminary checklist, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 203) 13 (2), pp. 96-130 : 114

Pachydactylus punctatus Peters, 1854 complex Speckled Thick-toed Gecko ( Fig. 18)

Material: NB513 (14); NB514 ( T 1); NB515 ( T 1); NB530 ( T 3); NB773 (34); NB774 (34); NB775 (34).

Comment: This species was recorded in southwestern Angola ( Monard 1937b; Laurent 1964; Marques et al. 2018), including Kului, near BNP (in Monard 1937b as P. serval , assigned to P. punctatus by Bauer et al. 2006). BNP specimens are morphologically different (larger, sturdier, paler, and with a different blotching pattern) from other specimens found in Tundavala and Lubango, Huíla Province ( Baptista et al. 2018; Butler et al. 2019), that are also assigned to the P. punctatus complex. These lizards also inhabit different habitats and microhabitats (found on the ground in rocky areas in Tundavala; under the bark of fallen logs in recently burnt areas during the day and in leaf litter near a dirt road during the night in BNP) and very likely belong to different species. Tundavala is along the high altitude edge of the Angolan plateau (above 2,000 m asl) and, given the very specious nature of this genus ( Heinicke et al. 2017) and the existence of cryptic diversity reported in Angola ( Branch et al. 2017), the taxonomic status of this complex requires further investigation.