Hemidactylus treutleri from Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

The genus Hemidactylus is represented by 25 species in India. Hemidactylus treutleri Mahony, 2009 was described from the Golconda Fort, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Since Mahony in 2009 only one new locality has been reported, at Rishi Valley, Tirupathi foothills, Andhra Pradesh. On 11 December 2012 at 13:43 h we found an individual of Hemidactylus treutleri on a rocky surface at Peddagattu village (16°36'23.86"N, 79°14'14.19"E), Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh. This was during the project of “Base line studies on flora and fauna of the Lambapur, proposed for uranium mining” which was funded by Board of Research and Nuclear Sciences (BRNS). The individual was identified using the diagnosed characters stated in Mahony (2009). The location lies in a biodiversity rich zone of the Eastern Ghats and the habitats mostly consist of dry deciduous forest composed largely of herbs together with a few shrubs and rarely trees and thorn forests. The other sympatric Hemidactylus gecko species recorded include H. frenatus, H. brooki, and Hemidactylus leschenaultii. The present record is 130 km away from the type locality of Mahony (2009) and 336 km away from the second record of Sreekar (2010).