American wall gecko

The American wall gecko (Tarentola americana) is a species of lizard in the family Phyllodactylidae, endemic to Cuba and the Bahamas. There are two recognized subspecies.

American wall gecko
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Phyllodactylidae
Genus:	Tarentola
Species:	T. americana
Binomial name
Tarentola americana (Gray, 1831)
Synonyms
Platydactylus americanus Gray, 1831 Platydactylus (Tarentola) americanus var. cubanus Gundlach & W. Peters, 1864 Tarentola americana — Boulenger, 1885 Tarentola cubana — Boulenger, 1885 Tarentola (Neotarentola) americana — Joger, 1984

Subspecies

Including the nominotypical subspecies, two subspecies are recognized as valid.

• Tarentola americana americana (Gray, 1831)
• Tarentola american warreni Schwartz, 1968

Gray's trinomial authority in parentheses indicates he originally described T. a. americana in a different genus.

Etymology

The subspecific name, warreni, is in honor of C. Rhea Warren, who collected the holotype.

Geographic range

T. a. americana lives on the island of Cuba and associated islets. T. a. warreni lives on some of the northern islands of the Bahamas.

Reproduction

T. americana is oviparous.

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1885). Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume I. Geckonidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 436 pp. + Plates I–XXXII. (Tarentola americana and T. cubana, p. 195).
• Gray JE (1831). "A Synopsis of the Species of the Class Reptilia". Supplement, 110 pp. In: Griffith E (1831). The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with its Organization, by the Baron Cuvier, Member of the Institute of France, &c. &c. &c. with Additional Descriptions of All the Species hitherto Named, and of Many not before Noticed, Volume the Ninth. London: Whitaker, Treacher, and Co. 480 pp. (Platydactylus americanus, new species, p. 48).
• Schwartz A (1968). "Geographic variation in the new world gekkonid lizard Tarentola americana Gray". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 81: 123–142. (Tarentola americana warreni, new subspecies, pp. 134–139, Figure 2).
• Schwartz A, Henderson RW (1991). Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. 720 pp. ISBN 978-0813010496. (Tarentola americana, p. 549).
• Schwartz A, Thomas R (1975). A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 216 pp. (Tarentola americana, pp. 165).
• Stejneger L (1917). "Cuban amphibians and reptiles collected for the United States National Museum from 1899 to 1902". Proceedings of the United States National Museum 53: 259–291. (Tarentola cubana, p. 266, Figures 27–29).