Taxonomic Status of the Hong Kong Populations of the Hemidactylus garnotii-vietnamensis Complex (Gekkonidae: Reptilia)
Hidetoshi Ota
Tropical Biosphere Research Center and Department of Biology, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-01, Japan
Michael W. Lau
Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Anthony Boqadek
St. Louis School, 179 Third Street, West Point, Hong Kong
Karyological investigations revealed that populations of the Hemidactylus garnotii-vietnamensis complex in Hong Kong have 2n = 3x = 63 chromosomes, of which the two largest triplets consist of biarmed, and the third triplet of one subtelocentric and two telocentric chromosomes. This karyotype more or less differs from those of the two known members of the complex from Asia (i.e., H. vietnamensis and H. stejnegeri), and is almost identical to the karyotype of H. garnotii from the Pacific islands. Although there are slight external differences between the Hong Kong and Pacific islands specimens, it seems appropriate to identify the former as H. garnotii (sensu stricto).
Keywords
Hemidactylus garnotii, Squamata, Cytotaxonomy, Hong Kong
