Phelsuma andamanense

Phelsuma andamanense group

(contains P. andamanense)

A single species of Phelsuma is known from the geographically most disparate archipelago colonized by this genus, the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, with a surface of over 6,000 km 2 and extensive tropical rainforest surface. Phylogenetic relationships of this species remain unresolved (isolated in the basal polytomy of the genus, Rocha et al. 2009), although possible affinities to the P. mutabilis group were detected in some analyses. The basal phylogenetic position of P. andamanense indicates that it has colonized the Andamans relatively early. It is intriguing that despite this early colonization, apparently no radiation has occurred on this archipelago, unlike what has happened on the Mascarenes, Seychelles, and Comoros.

P. andamanense is a green-coloured non-gluer with smooth ventral and subcaudal scales and without nostril-rostral contact or size-reduced vertebral scales. Except for the colour these characters agree with those observed in the P. m u t a b i l i s group (Tables 1–2).