Record of the Indo-Pacific Slender Gecko Hemiphyllodactylus typus (Squamata: Sauria: Gekkonidae) from the Andaman Islands, India

Assessment of historical and current distribution records of the Indo-Pacific slender gecko, Hemiphyllodactylustypus bleeker, 1860, in Sri Lanka

“…Considering the very dense maritime transportation in Sri Lanka (Indian Ocean) since the colonial period in the last 200 years, it is possible that H. typus naturalised in Sri Lanka after the colonial era. This hypothesis supports the occurrence of this species in Mascarene, Andaman and Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean where it is also a non-native (see Bour & Moutou, 1982;Das, 1999;Lever, 2003;Chandramouli, et al, 2012). A similar phenomenon is supposed for L. lugubris in Sri Lanka .…”

“…This species is distributed through Southeast Asia and the entire tropical Pacific Ocean west of New Guinea to the Sunda Islands and eastward towards the islands and atolls of eastern Polynesia reaching Pitcairn Island. The species has probably been introduced into the Philippines, Taiwan, Andaman and Nicobar (India) and Mascarene Islands, Ryukyu and Iriomotejima Islands (Japan), New Caledonia (questionable) and Hawaiian Islands in the USA (Das, 1999;Lever, 2003;Zug, 2010;Chandramouli et al, 2012;Fisher et al, 2013;Holden et al, 2014). Its apparent scarcity is certainly related to its small size, strictly nocturnal mode of life, and secretive behaviour (Zug, 2010).…”