Smith's leaf-toed gecko (''Hemidactylus smithi'') is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
lizard in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Gekkonidae
Gekkonidae (the common geckos) is the largest family of geckos, containing over 950 described species in 64 genera. Members of the Gekkonidae comprise many of the most widespread gecko species, including house geckos ('' Hemidactylus''), tokay g ...
. The species is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to the
Horn of Africa.
Etymology
The
specific name, ''smithi'', is in honor of American physician
Arthur Donaldson Smith
Arthur Donaldson Smith (1866–1939) was an American physician, hunter, and explorer of Africa. In the 1890s he made a geological expedition to Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana), passing through what was then Somaliland, southern Ethiopia and Kenya ...
.
[ Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Hemidactylus smithi'', p. 247).]
Geographic range
''H. smithi'' is found in eastern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and northern
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
.
Habitat
The preferred
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
of ''H. smithi'' is at altitudes of .
Reproduction
''H. smithi'' is
oviparous.
[
]
References
Further reading
* Boulenger GA (1895). "An Account of the Reptiles and Batrachians collected by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith in Western Somali-land and the Galla Country". ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 1895: 530–540 + Plates XXIX & XXX. (''Hemidactylus smithi'', new species, p. 532 + Plate XXIX, Figures 2, 2a).
* Largen M, Spawls S (2010). ''The Amphibians and Reptiles of Ethiopia and Eritrea''. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Chimaira / Serpents Tale. 694 pp. (''Hemidactylus smithi'', p. 312).
* Loveridge A (1947). "Revision of the African Lizards of the Family Gekkonidae". ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College'' 98: 1–469. (''Hemidactylus smithi'', pp. 166–167).
* Mazuch T (2013). ''Amphibians and Reptiles of Somaliland and Eastern Ethiopia''. Dřiteč, Czech Republic: Tomáš Mazuch Publishing. 80 pp. .
* Rösler H (2000). "''Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha)''". ''Gekkota'' 2: 28–153. (''Hemidactylus smithi'', p. 87). (in German).
* Šmíd J, Carranza S, Kratochvíl L, Gvoždík V, Nasher AK, Moravec J (2013). "Out of Arabia: A Complex Biogeographic History of Multiple Vicariance and Dispersal Events in the Gecko Genus ''Hemidactylus'' (Reptilia: Gekkonidae)". ''PLoS One'' 8 (5): e64018.
Hemidactylus
Reptiles of Ethiopia
Reptiles of Somalia
Reptiles described in 1895
Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger
{{Hemidactylus-stub