Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rüppell, 1835

Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rüppell, 1835: 18, tav. 6 fig. 2—Locus typicus: “ Insel Massaua und die benachbarte Küstenlandschaft” (Island of Massawa and the adjacent coastal area).

Hemidactylus homoeolepis [partim].— Peters 1882b: 43.

Hemidactylus flaviviridis .— Boulenger, 1903: 82.

Hemidactylus flaviviridis .— Showler, 1996: 185.

This introduced species on Socotra Island is only known from Hadiboh town and outskirts. We unsuccessfully searched for this species in many other villages (e.g. Qalansiyah).

Habitat. We observed it at night time on few buildings in Hadiboh town. It seems always strictly associated to buildings, usually near light spots; the species was also observed inside buildings at daytime.

Original data. Fig. 7. Hadiboh plain.

Bibliographic data. Blanford (1881a), Loveridge (1947), Rösler & Wranik (1998, 2003, 2004), Wranik 1998b.

General distribution. A widespread species distributed across most of India, Nepal, Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The species has been found in scattered localities on the coasts of Iran, Arabia, Socotra and along the Red Sea coasts of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and northern Somalia (cf. the map by Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008: 301). In the western part of its range, as well as in Socotra, it was probably unintentionally introduced by man.