A THIRD STENODACTYLUS IN AFRICA: RETURN OF THE FORGOTTEN FORM STENODACTYLUS STENURUS

Abstract

Just two species of genus Stenodactylus have been recently recognized in Africa. A third taxon, S. stenurus, was mentioned only as a junior synonym of S. petrii. During a field trip to North Africa we sampled new material and hypothesized that S. stenurus is in fact a different species, easily distinguished from both S. petrii and S. sthenodactylus. We tested our hypothesis using two multivariate methods (principal component analysis and discriminant analysis) relating to several metric and scalation characters. We providea redescription of S. stenurus, which is a valid species according to its distinct appearance, morphology, scalation, coloration, and distribution.