'Instituto de Investigacion de Recursos Biologicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAVH)'
Doi
Abstract
The common house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, is a native species from Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. It has been found extensively in areas of the tropics both in the Old as well as the New World. Through the revision of museum specimens, we found 32 H. frenatus that have been erroneously identified with another invasive species, H. angulatus. The first record of H. frenatus in Colombia was reported in 2000 from the Magdalena Medio region, since that date to the present, the species has been founded in different localities into the Caribbean, Andean valleys, Pacific coastal and Orinoquia. The species has predilection for urban and suburban environments, but no records exist on its natural environment. According to our observations, this gecko is now more abundant than its conspecific, H. angulatus, and therefore we assume a strong competition between both species as well as other native and exotic geckos, mainly those that inhabit the San Andrés and Providencia islands. We recommend future studies that examine the degree of pressure and competition of H. frenatus on other native and exotic species of lizards
