A Giant Spotted Gecko (Hemidactylus maculatus Dumeril and Bibron 1936) preying on Cnemaspis sp.

Abstract

T he Giant Spotted Gecko (Hemidactylus maculatus) is a largely saxicolous lizard endemic to the northern Western Ghats of India (Agarwal et al. 2011). It is one of the largest nocturnal geckos (SVL to 122 mm) on the Indian Subcontinent (Sharma 2002). Hemidactylus maculatus has been known to prey on the Indian Violet Tarantula (Chilobrachys fimbriatus) (Nar et al. 2022), Hemidactylus cf. brookii (Patel et al. 2014), and the Lesser Bandicoot Rat (Bandicota bengalensis) (Karunarathna and Amarasinge 2011). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of Hemidactylus maculatus feeding on a gecko in the genus Cnemaspis.At 2200 h on 10 February 2023, we encountered a Hemidactylus maculatus (SVL 60-70 mm) near the Kaas Plateau, Satara District, Maharashtra, India (17.715147 N, 73.808407 E; elev. 1,203 m asl) holding a Cnemaspis sp. by the neck on a stone about 1.5 m above the ground (Fig. 1). The larger gecko chewed its prey until it ceased moving before it was ingested.