Morphometric Study of Hemidactylus Geckos (Squamata:Gekkonidae) in Iran

Abstract

So far, four species of Hemidactylus have been reported in Iran as follows: H. persicus, H. robustus, H. flaviviridis, H. romeshkanicus. In this study, 108 specimens belonging to these four species of Hemidactylus were examined morphologically, using 19 metric and 6 meristic characters. Multivariate analyses showed morphological differences among these three species with exception H. romeshkanicus which was found to be indistinguishable from the specimens of H. persicus, especially in the DFA analysis. In spite of, grouping the holotype of H. romeshkanicus with population of H. persicus especially in DFA analyses and presences of high intraspecific variation among populations of H. persicus complex, we could not definitely decide about the taxonomic status of H. romeshkanicus with only one specimen. But we suggest that latter species probably belongs to a local populations inside H. persicus complex.

Keywords

• gekkonidae
• hemidactylus
• morphometric analysis
• iranian plateau
• metric characters
• meristic characters