Gymnodactylus timoriensis Duméril & Bibron, 1836

Rösler, Herbert, Grismer, L. Lee, Ineich, Ivan & Kaiser, Hinrich, 2019, The purportedly Indo-Australian gecko species Cnemaspis timoriensis (Duméril & Bibron, 1836) is actually the first named species of the neotropical genus Gonatodes Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Gekkonidae), Zootaxa 4576 (3), pp. 483-509 : 499-500

Gymnodactylus timoriensis Duméril & Bibron, 1836 is an older synonym of Gonatodes humeralis ( Guichenot, 1855)

François Louis Nompar de Caumont La Force, Comte de Castelnau (1810–1880) was a French naturalist, who collected several geckos during his journey to South America in 1843–47 ( Castelnau 1850). Duméril & Duméril (1851) considered these specimens, from the Mission de Sarayacu on the Rio Ucayali in Peru, as members of their species “G. de Gaudichaud. Gaudichaudii Dum. Bib.” (= Garthia gaudichaudii ), but they described some differences in pholidosis and color pattern. Guichenot (1855) recognized that these differences should not be attributed to members of the same species but provided evidence that they represented a distinct species, which he described and illustrated as Gymnodactylus humeralis Guichenot, 1855 (= Gonatodes humeralis ) in detail (see also the descriptions of synonyms of G. humeralis , including Gymnodactylus incertus Peters 1871:397 , Goniodactylus sulcatus O’Shaugnessy 1875:265 , and Gonatodes ferrugineus Cope 1864:102 ).

Under consideration of observed intraspecific variation, the holotype of Gymnodactylus timoriensis conforms in all meristic characters as well as in the morphological and numerical aspects of scale characters to those of Gonatodes humeralis described in the literature. The one recognizable exception is the absence of a single, enlarged scale in the posterior part of the supraciliary flap, but this appears to be a variable character: similarly expanded ciliary scales near the end of the supraciliary flap were also missing in one of nine specimens from Surinam and Venezuela we examined. Like other specimens of G. humeralis , MNHN 0 810 possesses a short nasofrenal stripe, two postocular stripes that begin immediately on the posterior edge of the eye, and flecks in the shoulder area. Additional common elements of the color pattern include a relatively broad, light, unicolored vertebral stripe whose edge is produced by asymmetrical flecks, and laterally two linearly arranged rows of flecks and short stripes, where the upper row appears larger and darker than the lower row (see the descriptions and illustrations in Guichenot 1855; Mertens 1972; Hoogmoed 1973; Boos 1984; Hoogmoed & Avila-Pires 1991; Avila-Pires 1995; Lehr 2002; Cole & Kok 2006; Bernarde et al. 2011; Cole et al. 2013; Prudente et al. 2013; Morato et al. 2014; Roberto et al. 2014; Silva et al. 2016; Señaris et al. 2018).

Ultimately, we can only speculate about the exact collection locality of the holotype of Gymnodactylus timoriensis . Whereas Gonatodes humeralis does occur in Brazil, it does not occur as far south as Rio de Janeiro or even in a region close to this prominent stop in Gaudichaud’s travels ( Vanzolini 1968a, b; Avila-Pires 1995; Ribeiro-Júnior & Amaral 2016: Fig. 92), and we therefore question whether Gaudichaud himself could have collected it (see above). However, in the first three volumes of their Erpétologie Générale, Duméril & Bibron (1834, 1835, 1836) cited a variety of herpetological collectors and donors as suppliers of specimens from South America and several Caribbean islands. Shipments from French Guiana, for example, are mentioned as having been sent by several named persons and, we think it is likely that MNHN 0 810 may have been sent to Rio de Janeiro in a similar shipment—some of which were shipped contemporaneously with Gaudichaud’s visits to South America. Based on the unpublished MNHN catalog for the period from 1832–1838, only two large South American collections were received, one from Gaudichaud and the other from the naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857), who detailed his collecting effort in the nine-volume compendium Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale ( Orbigny 1835–44). Before 1832 there was no formal cataloging system in Paris and the earliest specimens accessioned into the herpetological collection are therefore untraceable. Nevertheless, with Gaudichaud listed as the collector, the most reasonable approach is to credit him for the delivery in which MNHN 0 810 arrived in Paris.