Hemidactylus brasilianus (Amaral, 1935)

Uchoa, Lucas Rafael, Delfim, Fagner Ribeiro, Mesquita, Daniel Oliveira, Colli, Guarino Rinaldi, Garda, Adrian Antonio & Guedes, Thais B., 2022, Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from the Caatinga, northeastern Brazil: Detailed and updated overview, Vertebrate Zoology 72, pp. 599-659 : 599

Hemidactylus brasilianus (Amaral, 1935)

Figs 3.6 and 13

Type locality:

Rio Pandeiros, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Distribution.

In the Caatinga it is registered in the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe. It is widespread in the Caatinga and occurs along eight ecoregions (Table 1 ; Appendix S3). It occurs in low to high elevation areas (34-1,085 m a.s.l.), with annual mean temperature 20 to 27°C, and average annual rainfall between 374 and 1,479 mm.

Ecological notes.

Terrestrial and nocturnal/crepuscular (Vanzolini et al. 1980; Rodrigues 2003; Menezes et al. 2013). It occurs in open and forested habitats along the Caatinga, where it is commonly associated with areas with rock formations and fallen trunks, dry cactuses, but also observed in bromeliads ( Rocha and Rodrigues 2005; Andrade et al. 2013; FRD pers. obs.). Diet based mainly on arthropods, being Diplopoda, Gryllotalpidae (Mole cricket) and Isoptera are the most representative items ( Mesquita et al. 2006; Menezes et al. 2013). Oviparous, no detailed data is known about the number of eggs laid by the species, but it could be similar to other Hemidactylus ( Vitt 1992; Bezerra et al. 2011).

Figures

Figure 3. Lizards recorded in the Caatinga region. 3.1 Norops brasiliensis; 3.2 Norops fuscoauratus; 3.3 Diploglossus lessonae; 3.4 Ophiodes striatus; 3.5 Hemidactylus agrius; 3.6 Hemidactylus brasilianus; 3.7 Hemidactylus mabouia; and 3.8 Lygodactylus klugei. Photograph credits: Mauro Teixeira (3.1), Marco A. Freitas (3.2), Daniel Mesquita (3.5, 3.7), Adrian Garda (3.3, 3.4, 3.6, 3.8)