Rhacodactylus Fitzinger 1843

Rhacodactylus Fitzinger, 1843

Content. Rhacodactylus leachianus (Cuvier, 1829) (Fig. 3 F), R. auriculatus (Bavay, 1869), R. trachyrhynchus Bocage, 1873; R. trachycephalus (Boulenger, 1878).

Type species. Ascalabotes leachianus Cuvier, 1829 by original designation.

Diagnosis. Rhacodactylus may be distinguished from all other New Caledonian diplodactylid geckos by the following combination of character states: body large to very large (maximum 125–256 mm SVL); head large, skull usually ornamented with bumps, ridges or rugosities; tail variable across species, 30–100% of SVL; dorsal scalation granular, homogeneous; extensive skin folds present or absent; expanded undivided subdigital lamellae under all toes; webbing between digits weakly to strongly developed; claw of digit I of manus and pes positioned lateral to a single, undivided apical lamella; precloacal pores in three to six rows (occasionally up to eight rows, but posteriormost one or two with only scattered pores) in males (49–130 pores in total), longest anterior rows extending on to base of thighs or not; dorsal color pattern highly variable both within and between species.

Distribution. Rhacodactylus spp. occur throughout most of the Grande Terre — as far north as the Dôme de Tiébaghi in the west and the Panié massif in the east — but they have not been recorded in the far north of Grande Terre and among its smaller satellite islands they have only been recorded on one (Île Némou). They are also present on the Île des Pins and its surrounding satellite islands but are absent from the Loyalty Islands.

Remarks. The four species here retained in a redefined Rhacodactylus represent three morphologically distinct units. Although we retrieve a monophyletic Rhacodactylus under maximum likelihood in the ND2 tree, the low level of support for this arrangement does not exclude the possibility that each of these units represents an independent lineage with closer affinities to other New Caledonian genera than to one another. Were this the case, the name Rhacodactylus is linked to R. leachianus and the names Ceratolophus Bocage, 1873 and Chameleonurus Boulenger, 1878 are available for R. auriculatus and the live-bearing forms, respectively. See below for a discussion of the revalidation of R. trachycephalus.