Abstract
The invasive Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) is one of the most widespread introduced species of reptiles, being present in the New World at least 500 years ago. In this work, we report for the first time, the presence of the invasive gecko H. mabouia in the dry Chaco, a biogeographic region included in the Gran Chaco Sudamericano. We collected 3 individuals in an urban zone at Las Lomitas, Patiño department, Formosa Province, Argentina. This new record extends the distribution range of this introduced species by nearly 300 km (in a straight line) from Formosa city, the nearest point previously reported.
Highlights
The invasive Hemidactylus mabouia is one of the most widespread introduced species of reptiles (Hughes et al 2015)
The presence of H. mabouia was described for Iguazu National Park, Misiones province (Genise and Montanelli 1991), and successive reports indicate the presence of this taxon in Chaco, Corrientes, and Formosa provinces (Federico and Cacivio 2000, Alvarez et al 2002, 2009, Baldo et al 2008)
The new report is the first record for the invasive species H. mabouia in the dry Chaco, a biogeographic region included in the Gran Chaco Sudamericano (Naumann 2006)
Summary
The invasive Hemidactylus mabouia is one of the most widespread introduced species of reptiles (Hughes et al 2015). It inhabits in many countries of Africa (including several Seychelles islands), the Caribbean; in the state of Florida (USA), on Madeira (Portugal), Central America (Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama), and South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela and Uruguay) (Uetz et al 2017). The species inhabits natural anthropic impacted areas or urban centers (Vanzolini 1978, Baldo et al 2008), being reported in some invasive Hemidactylus, the ability to displace native species (Hanley et al 1998, Rivas Fuenmayor et al 2005, Dame and Petren 2006). The presence of H. mabouia was described for Iguazu National Park, Misiones province (Genise and Montanelli 1991), and successive reports indicate the presence of this taxon in Chaco, Corrientes, and Formosa provinces (Federico and Cacivio 2000, Alvarez et al 2002, 2009, Baldo et al 2008)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
