Diplodactylus capensis, a newly described gecko

[moloch05]

Some of you may have read recently about the description of two new geckos from Australia. Here is a link:
Geckos in the spotlight - two new species discovered

One of the newly described geckos lives on the North West Cape near Exmouth, Western Australia. This is a site that I have visited twice in recent years. I went back through my photos and found similar animals so I sent these pics to the Western Australia Museum for identification. The reply was that my photos were indeed of the new gecko, Diplodactylus capensis. These animals were formerly considered to be Diplodactylus mitchelli but DNA studies indicated that they are more closely related to animals with more southerly distributions.

Here are my photos. I posted these in my Feb07 trip reports (FieldHerpForum) but had identified them as Mitchell's Geckos (D. mitchelli). The geckos are sexually dimorphic in colour and pattern.



Diplodactylus capensis
Female:

Male:

Here is a pic of the sort of habitat where I observed the geckos:

Regards,
David

 

[Wild~Touch]

Awesome little creatures - thanks for sharing

 

[miley_take]

wow! very cool, thanks for sharing

 

[cooper123]

they look great