A New All-Female Triploid Species of Gecko and Karyological Data on the Bisexual Hemidactylus frenatus from Vietnam

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Vietnamese geckos of the genus Hemidactylus, previously considered to belong to the triploid all-female species H. garnotii Dumeril and Bibron (n = 23; 3n = 70), prove instead to belong to the new triploid all-female species H. vietnamensis (n = 20; 3n = 60). H. karenorum Theobald from Vietnam and Burma, seemingly closely related to H. vietnamensis, may also be an all-female species. The new species is markedly different in morphology. Neither karyological nor electrophoretic analyses support the origin of H. vietnamensis by hybridization among the sympatric bisexual species H. bowringii Dumeril and Bibron, H. frenatus Dumeril and Bibron and Cosymbotus platyurus (Schneider). H. frenatus from Vietnam has a diploid number of 2n = 40. The number obtained is the same as the 2n number of H. frenatus from Australia, but distinct from the number in this species from Taiwan (2n = 46).