. Bonn zoological bulletin. Zoology. Fig. 12. Hemidactylus angidatus () from Godomey near Cotonou (left), H. mabouia from Cotonou (center) and H. aff. mabouia, also from Cotonou (right). Photo: P. Wagner brought also Chabanaud (1917 a) to the conclusion that there are two different species in this group of geckos, viz. "H. brookii" (certainly meaning angidatus) and "H. stel- latus " (= H. guineensis), at Agouagon, Benin, even in sympatry. Preliminary genetic support for two species within a H. angulatus/guineensis complex may be deduced from the tree in Carranza &
. Bonn zoological bulletin. Zoology. Fig. 12. Hemidactylus angidatus () from Godomey near Cotonou (left), H. mabouia from Cotonou (center) and H. aff. mabouia, also from Cotonou (right). Photo: P. Wagner brought also Chabanaud (1917 a) to the conclusion that there are two different species in this group of geckos, viz. "H. brookii" (certainly meaning angidatus) and "H. stel- latus " (= H. guineensis), at Agouagon, Benin, even in sympatry. Preliminary genetic support for two species within a H. angulatus/guineensis complex may be deduced from the tree in Carranza & Arnold (2006) where a Kenyan Rift Valley sample is closer to dry savannah samples from Mauritania and Mali (guineensis) than to a forest sample from Bioko (angidatus ). Moreover, as already point- ed out by Thys van den Audenaerde (1967), the forest species H. angulatus does not occur in Central and East Africa. Bauer et al. (2006) who provided locality data for many specimens of their//, angulatus (sensu lato) from all over Benin, did not distinguish between the two forms thus im- plying morphological uniformity, except their variable colour pattern. They stressed that the sympatric H. mabouia could be easily mixed up with H. angulatus what we also found to be true (but only for the forest form: an- gulatus ) particularly when the diagnostic (see the key in Bauer et al. 2006) characters of tubercles on head and dorsum are concerned. Here, again the colour pattern of the dark phases of H. angulatus and H. mabouia may prove to be more reliable than the scalation (Figure 12). Concluding it becomes clear that Hemidactylus angula- tus is in urgent need of a taxonomic revision through- out its range. Bonn zoological Bulletin 57 (1): 31-54 ©ZFMK. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Z
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