Hemidactylus brookii
has one of the widest distributions and, arguably, one of the most confused taxonomic histories of any
gekkonid lizard. Nuclear (RAG1 and PDC) and mitochondrial (ND2, cyt
b
) DNA sequence data were employed to examine
relationships among a sample of putative
H. brookii
, including a topotypical specimen from Borneo. Two clades were recovered,
one consisting of specimens from Borneo (Sarawak), Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia and Karnataka, southwestern India, and
another of specimens from Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Kerala, southwestern India. Both clades are well supported and deeply
divergent from one another, whereas genetic variation within each clade is limited. None of the analytical approaches used
recovered a well-supported monophyletic
H. brookii sensu lato
. Near uniformity of
H. brookii
sensu stricto
in East Asia suggests
that this species has spread to this region relatively recently. The name
H. parvimaculatus
Deraniyagala 1953 is available for
the Sri Lankan clade and this form should be treated as a valid species. Existing data cannot be used to distinguish whether
this species has colonized Sri Lanka from South India or vice versa. The Palghat Gap provides a candidate barrier to gene
flow between
H. brookii
and
H. parvimaculatus
. Although the identity of
H. brookii
complex geckos in East Asia and Sri
Lanka appears resolved, the situation in India and Pakistan remains complex and thorough revisionary work, coupled with
phylogenetic studies, is needed to determine species boundaries in this regio
