Species Gehyra australis Gray, 1845

Museums

Regional Maps

• Gehyra australis Gray, J.E. 1845. Catalogue of the Specimens of Lizards in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum xxviii 289 pp. [163].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BMNH xxii.55b (other syntype, BMNH xxii.55b (Swan River), referred to Gehyra variegata (Duméril & Bibron, 1836)), Port Essington, NT.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Cogger, H.G., in Cogger, H.G., Cameron, E.E. & Cogger, H.M. 1983. Amphibia and Reptilia. 313 pp. in Walton, D.W. (ed.). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service Vol. 1 vi + 313 pp. [87].

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Ellis, R.J., Doughty, P., Bauer, A.M., Pepper, M. & Keogh, J.S. 2018. A replacement name for Gehyra punctulata Doughty, Bauer, Pepper & Keogh, 2018 (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) and the nomenclatural status of Phyria punctulata Gray, 1842. Records of the Western Australian Museum 33: 133–134 (removal of Phyria punctulata Gray, 1842 from the synonymy)

 

Distribution

States

Northern Territory

Extra Distribution Information

Distribution re-circumscribed following description of cryptic species within the G. australis complex by Oliver et al. (2020). Known only from north-western NT, from Port Essington west through Darwin then along the western seaboard as far south as Gregory NP, and east to at Eva Valley on the southern edge of the Arnhem Plateau. Records from outside this range most likely represent other species described in Oliver et al. (2020), or currently undescribed species.

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, low open shrubland, low open woodland, low woodland, nocturnal, open forest, open scrub, oviparous, tall forest, tall open shrubland, tall shrubland, under bark.

 

General References

Bustard, H.R. 1965. The systematic status of the Australian geckos Gehyra variegata (Duméril and Bibron, 1836) and Gehyra australis Gray, 1845. Herpetologica 20: 259-272

Bustard, H.R. 1969. The ecology of the Australian geckoes Diplodactylusn williamsi and Gehyra australis in northern New South Wales. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie Wetenschappen 72C: 451-477

King, M. 1982. Karyotypic evolution in Gehyra (Gekkonidae: Reptilia). A new species from the Alligator River region of northern Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 30: 93-101

Mitchell, F.J. 1965. Australian geckos assigned to the genus Gehyra Gray. (Reptilia: Gekkonidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 46: 287-319 (taxonomy)

Oliver, P.M., Prasetya, A.M., Tedeschi, L.G., Fenker, J., Ellis, R.J., Doughty, P. & Moritz, C. 2020. Crypsis and convergence: integrative taxonomic revision of the Gehyra australis group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from northern Australia. PeerJ PeerJ 8:e7971: 1-56 [22]

 

Common Name References

CAVS 2006. Census of Australian Vertebrate Species. Australian Biological Resources Study. (Northern Dtella)

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
07-Feb-2024	GEKKONIDAE	12-Oct-2020	MODIFIED
07-Feb-2024	GEKKOTA	20-Sep-2018	MODIFIED
07-Feb-2024	GEKKONIDAE	15-Mar-2017	MODIFIED
07-Feb-2024		30-Mar-2012	MODIFIED
07-Feb-2024		16-Dec-2011	MOVED
07-Feb-2024		07-Dec-2011	MODIFIED
08-Mar-2011		02-May-2011	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)