Title: Gehyra marginata
Recently in the U.S. a large species of Gehyra has been imported with some regularity from Indonesia. most often it is sold (and bred) as G. vorax. However, there are a few species of Gehyra that are large and similar in appearance. Of these, the species that has a relatively wide distribution in Indonesia, and is most likely the species imported regularly, is Gehyra marginata. G. vorax is found mainly in the island groups east of New Guinea, including Fiji. The other species is membranacruralis. It is known only from Papua New Guinea and is the most recently described of the three (see King and Horner 1989). The other 2 were described in the 1800's. None should really be considered a "new" species, contrary to some dealer claims.
Aside from geography, there are some morphological characters that distinguish the species. One of the characters that separates marginata from vorax is the greenish eyes.
I personally recently acquired a pair of large Gehyra from one dealer... they were sold as "Halmahera Giant Geckos" and have green eyes.... they are G. marginata. Another importer in the U.S. is selling the same greenish-eyed beast as "Ambon Giant Gecko".... and another sells them for about 6 times more as "Indonesian Giant Gecko"... a few still call them "New Rhacodactylus from Indonesia".
It is possible that there are live specimens of G. vorax in the U.S... and it is unlikely, though possible, that there is a handful of G. membranacruralis in the trade. However, the majority of large Gehyra sold in the U.S. are coming in via Indonesia, not Papua New Guinea (is that country even open to international animal trade?) or oceanic islands. Even without looking at physical characters, the odds are that most, if not all of the large Gehyra sold in the U.S. are G. marginata.
Take care,
Greg
For additional information and literature citations, see the EMBL Reptile Database entry for Gehyra at:
http://srs.embl-heidelberg.de:8000/srs5bin/cgi-bin/wgetz?[REPTILIA-Species:Gehyra*]
King,M. & Horner,P. 1989. Karyotype evolution in Gehyra (Gekkonidae: Reptilia). V. A new species from Papua New Guinea and the distribution and morphometrics of Gehyra oceanica (Lesson). The Beagle 6: 169-178
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Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology
170 Whitney Ave
PO Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
Phone 203-432-3791
Fax 203-432-9816
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
