Bunopus tuberculatus Blanford, 1874

LECTOTYPE. BMNH 1946.8.22.84 (ex. BMNH 74.11.23.85), designated by Szczerbak & Golubev (1986).

TYPE LOCALITY. Originally “Gedrosia Persiaque meridionali” (Blanford 1874), restricted to Baluchistan by Smith (1935); further restricted to “near Bampur, Baluchistan ” by Szczerbak & Golubev (1986).

DISTRIBUTION. The whole of the Arabian Peninsula, Levant, Iraq, Iran, SW Afghanistan, Pakistan.

DISTRIBUTION IN IRAN. Fig. 31. From the Mesopotamian plain in Khuzestan to Bushehr Prov.; the Iranian Plateau from S of the Kopet Dagh to the coastal areas around the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. Absent from the Zagros mountain range .

HABITAT. Usually sandy habitats from blowing sand dunes to sand mixed with gravel or pastures, associated with desert and steppe vegetation such as Tamarix (Anderson 1999) .

REMARKS. There are large genetic distances between populations from central and SE Iran, the latter being closely related to the populations from Syria and Kuwait (Červenka et al. 2008). This intraspecific diversification which is similar to that between B. tuberculatus and B. crassicauda suggests a cryptic diversity of Bunopus geckos with potentially undescribed species in the central part of its range.

REFERENCES. Szczerbak & Golubev (1986, 1996); Anderson (1999); Červenka et al. (2008); Bauer et al. (2013); Kamali & Mozaffari (2013).