Lygodactylus williamsi

electric blue gecko
Male
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Gekkota
Family: Gekkonidae
Subfamily: Gekkoninae
Genus: Lygodactylus
Species: L. williamsi
Binomial name
Lygodactylus williamsi
Loveridge, 1952
Lygodactylus williamsi is restricted to a few square kilometers of Tanzania.

Lygodactylus williamsi is a critically endangered species of lizard, endemic to a small area of Tanzania. Common names include turquoise dwarf gecko, William's dwarf gecko, or, in the pet trade, electric blue gecko.[2]

Geographic range

L. williamsi is only found in 8 km2 (3.1 sq mi) of the Kimboza Forest, Ruvu Forest Reserve, Mbagalala and Muhalama at an altitude of 170–480 m (560–1,570 ft).[3] These are located at the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains in eastern Tanzania.

Etymology

The specific name, williamsi, given to the gecko by British zoologist Arthur Loveridge,[4] honours American herpetologist Ernest Edward Williams.[5]

Description

Males are bright blue with heavy black throat stripes, visible preanal pores, and hemipenile bulges. The females range from brown or bronze to bright green, and have little to no black on their throat. Females can easily be confused with juvenile or socially suppressed males that are also green, sometimes with a bluish cast. The underside of both sexes is orange. Colours of individuals vary according to mood and temperature. Males may range from black or gray to brilliant electric blue. Females may range from dark brown to brilliant green with turquoise highlights. Adult snout-vent length is 5 to 8 cm (2.0 to 3.1 in).

Ecology

In the wild, turquoise day geckos live exclusively on the (endangered) screwpine, Pandanus rabaiensis,[2] mostly in the leaf crown. They eat small insects and drink water from leaves. They are also fond of nectar.

Behavior

Like all geckos of the genera Lygodactylus and Phelsuma, this species is diurnal. They are bold, active, social, and males are territorial. Social gestures include lateral flattening, puffing out of the throat patch, head shaking and head bobbing, and tail-wagging.

Reproduction

Males court females with lateral flattening, puffing out of the throat pouch, and head bobbing. Two to three weeks after copulation, the female lays a clutch of 1 or 2 pea-sized white, hard-shelled eggs which are glued to a surface in a secure, hidden location. Eggs hatch in 60 to 90 days.

Conservation status

This gecko's survival is threatened by (entirely illegal) collection for the international pet trade,[2] and its tropical forest habitat is shrinking and fragmenting. It is critically endangered and the population is thought to be declining rapidly.[1] The subpopulation in Kimboza Forest Reserve was estimated at 150,000 adults in 2009. The size of the remaining subpopulations (Ruvu Forest Reserve and two smaller ones outside protected areas) is unknown, but their size is not thought contribute significantly to the total population.[1] Neither of the reserves where it occurs is well-protected.[1] The two known sites outside protected areas are tiny: One consists of 14 Pandanus trees (the rest has been cleared for banana plantations) and the other is equally close to disappearing.[6]

Threats

Although there are no legally wild-caught turquoise day geckos, wild-caught geckos are commonly sold in pet shops. It is estimated that between December 2004 and July 2009, at least 32,310 to 42,610 geckos were taken by one collecting group, ~15% of the wild population at the time.[2]

Collectors commonly cut down the screwpine trees to reach the geckos living in the leaf crest, destroying the gecko's habitat. Many geckos are thought to die while being shipped to market. The pet trade is likely a worse threat than even habitat loss.[2]

Most of the remaining forest is in Catchment Forest Reserves,[7] but is still seriously threatened by clearing for farmland, illegal logging, increasingly frequent fires, and mining of the limestone outcrops on which the screwpines grow.[1] There is little forest left unaffected.[7]

As a result of its threatened status, a captive breeding project and studbook was initiated by EAZA zoos in 2013.[6] In general, they have proven easy to breed in captivity.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Flecks M, Weinsheimer F, Böhme W, Chenga J, Lötters S, Rödder D, Schepp U, Schneider H. (2012). "Lygodactylus williamsi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Flecks M, Weinsheimer F, Boehme W, Chenga J, Loetters S, Roedder D. (2012). "Watching extinction happen: the dramatic population decline of the critically endangered Tanzanian Turquoise Dwarf Gecko, Lygodactylus williamsi". Salamandra 48 (1): 12–20.
  3. ↑ United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (November 2013). Review of Lygodactylus williamsi.. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  4. ↑ Loveridge A. (1952). A startlingly turquoise-blue gecko from Tanganyika. Journal of the East African Natural History Society 20: 446. (cited in the IUCN database as the species authority).
  5. ↑ Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Lygodactylus williamsi, p. 286).
  6. 1 2 3 Maisch, H. (2013). Reasons to feel blue. Zooquaria 83: 24.
  7. 1 2 Burgess, Neil; Doggart, Nike; Lovett, Jon C. (2002). "The Uluguru Mountains of eastern Tanzania: the effect of forest loss on biodiversity". Oryx 36.2: 140-152.
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