Lygodactylus lawrencei Hewitt 1926

Lygodactylus lawrencei Hewitt, 1926

(Tables 4; Fig. 1–4, 18–20)

Lygodactylus lawrencei (Branch 1998: 247; Marques et al. 2018: 191,192)

Several authors had suggested the presence of L. lawrencei in southern Angola (Branch 1998; Marques et al. 2018), but so far no vouchered records confirmed its presence in the country. The species was originally described from the Kunene Region in Namibia by Hewitt (1926a) and has to date been confirmed only in far northwestern Namibia. This rocky, dry savanna specialist is potentially the easiest species of Lygodactylus to diagnose in the region, given its stereotypically low number of precloacal pores (two), when compared to its congeners. Our records from Maungo and 11 km N of Espinheira camp, Iona National Park camp are the first vouchered records of this species for Angola and mark the northernmost known distribution of the species. Comparison of the mitochondrial gene 16S (add GenBank no.) confirms that the Angolan and Namibian populations are conspecific.

Diagnosis. Lygodactylus lawrencei is small dwarf gecko with a maximum SVL of 30 mm. It can be distinguished from other members of the genus occurring in Angola and surrounding regions by having 1) three scales surrounding the nostril (1 st supralabial, two supranasals); 2) nostrils separated from the rostral and pierced between supranasal and first labial; 3) mental followed by two postmentals; 4) first infralabial with <25% overlap with postpostmental; 5) 16 to 17 rows of ventral scales at midbody; 6) only two precloacal pores in males; 7) subcaudals arranged in rows of imbricate scales about ⅓ (but mostly subequal) of width of tail (Fig. 4D); 8) venter white to cream; 9) black chevron markings on the gular region. Background usually ashy-grey with thin dark bands, usually broken. A large streak is visible from nostril to the forelimb insertion, passing through the eye. Often a pale chestnut lateral stripe is visible, extending from the neck to the anterior half of the tail. The Angolan individual has a very faded chevron pattern in the gular region (Fig. 18).