At 12:04 PM 2/12/02 -0500, you wrote: > One good book that I recommend with pictures and dichotomous keys is >Herpetology of China by Zhao and Adler. Also it is quite possible that you >have a unique color morph of Gekko gecko (gecko?). I know that there are >amelanistic Tokays and Piebald White line geckos (Gekko vittatus). It is >possible that you have something similar.
Just to toss in something that is of interest, if you ever see the guide to herps of Hong Kong, the photo of Gekko gecko there is from an animal purchased in the traditional medicine shops... so locality is unknown. I am not sure if the Gekko gecko in the Zhao and Adler book is in the same boat. I have seen wild Gekko gecko in Hong Kong and they look similar to the morph imported from China several years ago. > One last possibility. The Chinese geckos, Gekko chinensis and Gekko >hokouensis have recently become the subject of several evolutionary studies. >It appears that both of these species have a complex evolutionary history and >there are some chromosomal races and hybrid forms that haven't been described >yet as species. With the extremely large range of the Tokay gecko I am sure >that it's possible that it has a similar evolutionary history with several >taxa yet to be described. Ota is working on this very question with respect to "green-eyed" geckos and, I think, tokays. It is very likely that "tokay" is multiple species, which is one reason why the Chinese morph hasn't gotten a name yet I think (Aaron Bauer and I were looking at this a few years ago... but it got out of hand quickly). In order to know for sure if it is new and what is actual range is, one must first know what the total variation is within the species in the wild. A note on subspecies, the trend now is to not describe subspecies for taxa. Many feel that if something IS different, then name it as such. Natural variation within a species is not the same thing as a new species, even if it is geographically based. Greg ----- Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell Division of Vertebrate Zoology Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 170 Whitney Avenue, P. O. Box 208118 New Haven, CT 06520-8118 Phone: 203/432-3791 FAX: 203/432-9816 http://www.peabody.yale.edu ########################################################################### THE GLOBAL GECKO ASSOCIATION LISTSERV WebSite: www.gekkota.com Archive: [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ The GGA takes no responsibility for the contents of these postings. ###########################################################################
