Discover a new species of gecko

A species of gecko belonging to the genus Gekko has just been published based on the specimen collected in the limestone mountains of Cao Bang province (Vietnam) and Quang Tay province (China) with scientific name Gekko adleri Nguyen, Wang, Yang , Lehmann, Le, Ziegler & Bonkowski, 2013.

The new species is named after Professor Kraig Adler, a famous reptile and frog researcher in the United States. The article describing the new species is the result of research cooperation between Vietnamese, Chinese and German scientists recently published in Zootaxa magazine No. 3652 (May 2013).

Adlock geckos have identifiable characteristics of head and body length to 75mm, long tail to 83mm; has a nasal scales, smaller than the scales on the nose; the chin's scales bulge; the number of scales between the two eyes from 27 - 36; number of nodules in the middle of the body 7 - 11; abdominal scales from scales to chin to anal anus 168 - 190; number of scales around middle body 123 - 144; number of horizontal ventral scales between body 35 - 44; the number of thin plates under the 4th toe is 11 - 15; the front of the front legs does not have nodules, the upper face of the hind legs has 0 - 8 nodules; male individuals have 17-21 holes before anus; there is a protrusion at the base of the tail behind the anus; nodules on the upper face of the tail; scales below bulge tail wide horizontally; the upper part and body are gray-brown or dark gray with four horizontal stripes on the back. This new species of gecko lives on cliffs or small rocks in limestone mountains, the foods found in their stomachs are spiders, crickets, bees and termites.

There are now 12 species of gecko species in Vietnam. It is noteworthy that although limestone karst in Ha Lang and Trung Khanh districts (Cao Bang province) is not a nature reserve, it has a high value for biodiversity. The research group of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources has discovered three new species in this area over the past two years, including: dense snake (Oligodon nagao), wa-za clone (Gracixalus waza) and The gecko adlove mentioned above.