Tropiocolotes

Tropiocolotes
Tropiocolotes steudneri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Sauria
Infraorder:	Gekkota
Family:	Gekkonidae
Subfamily:	Gekkoninae
Genus:	Tropiocolotes W. Peters, 1880

Tropiocolotes is a genus of geckos that grow to about 2 in (5.1 cm) in length and are endemic to Northern Africa. They are commonly known as dwarf geckos, pygmy geckos, or sand geckos. They have an elongated body and their heads are oval and of equal or lesser width than their body.

Species & subspecies

The following species and subspecies are recognized as being valid.^[1]

• Tropiocolotes algericus Loveridge, 1947
• Tropiocolotes bisharicus S. Baha El Din, 2001
• Tropiocolotes nattereri Steindachner, 1901
• Tropiocolotes naybandensis Krause et al., 2013
• Tropiocolotes nubicus S. Baha El Din, 1999
• Tropiocolotes scortecci Cherchi & Spanò, 1963 – Scortecci's sand gecko^[2]
• Tropiocolotes somalicus Parker, 1942
• Tropiocolotes steudneri (W. Peters, 1869) – Algerian sand gecko
• Tropiocolotes tripolitanus W. Peters, 1880 – northern sand gecko
  • Tropiocolotes tripolitanus apoklomax Pappenfuss, 1969
  • Tropiocolotes tripolitanus occidentalis Parker, 1942
  • Tropiocolotes tripolitanus tripolitanus W. Peters, 1880
• Tropiocolotes wolfgangboehmei Wilms, Shobrak & Wagner, 2010

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Tropiocolotes.

References

1. "Tropiocolotes ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Tropiocolotes scortecci, p. 239).

Further reading

• Baha El Din SM (2001). "A synopsis of African and south Arabian geckos of the genus Tropiocolotes (Reptilia: Gekkonidae), with a description of a new species from Egypt". Zoology in the Middle East 22: 45-56.
• Peters W (1880). "Über die von Hrn. Gerhard Rohlfs und Dr. A. Stecker auf der Reise nach der Oase Kufra gesammelten Amphibien ". Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1880: 305-309. (Tropiocolotes, new genus, p. 306). (in German and Latin).