Gonatodes albogularis, which has been called a number of vernacular names in English, is a smallish species of gecko found in warm parts of Central and South America, Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica. They prefer to live in tropical dry forest habitats. It is sexually dimorphic: the male is colourful, while the female is a more drab grey. The fingers do not have lamellar pads for climbing smooth surfaces like many other geckos but instead have normal claws like most lizards. At one time the species had a breeding population in southern Florida, especially Key West, but this population appears to have died out by the early 1990s. They are believed to be able to tell the difference between brightness and hues of conspecifics. Males are incredibly aggressive with territory defense against both other males and potential predators.
Taxonomy
This gecko was first scientifically described by André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron in 1836 using a few specimens sent to Paris by Auguste Plée from Martinique. They also were able to examine numerous specimens collected in Cuba by the anarchist polymath Ramón de la Sagra, who had arrived in Paris from that island the previous year with many objects of natural history.
Gonatodes albogularis is the type species for the genus Gonatodes, because when Leopold Fitzinger defined the genus in 1843 he included three species in it: G. gravenhorstii, G. laevis and G. albogularis, because the first two names were nomina nuda, G. albogularis remains the only valid name for a type species by monotypy.
Subspecies
There are four subspecies as of 2020: Gonatodes albogularis albogularis (Duméril and Bibron, 1836) Gonatodes albogularis bodinii (Rivero Blanco, 1964) – First described as an independent species by Carlos Rivero-Blanco, first subsumed as a subspecies of this species by Beate Röll in 2009. Gonatodes albogularis fuscus (Hallowell, 1855) – First subsumed under this species by some taxonomists in 1962. It was considered an independent species by authorities such as the Reptile Database as of 2014 and Röll in 2009, but herpetologists from the United States such as Robert Powell and Robert W. Henderson have preferred to consider it to be a subspecies. Gonatodes albogularis notatus (Reinhardt and Lütken, 1862) – The form from the islands in the north of the Caribbean.
Types
There are two syntypes for the nominate form which are kept at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. These were supposedly collected on Martinique, although the species does not appear to occur there.
Etymology
The etymology of the specific epithet albogularis is from the Latin language adjective albus, meaning '(dull) white', gula, meaning 'throat', and the Latin suffix -arius, which means 'pertaining to'; i.e. together giving 'white-throated', as this described their syntypes. This name was chosen by Duméril and Bibron for this taxon because the specimens they examined had the lower part of the head and the neck being "un blanc extrêmement pur", this colour also being found on the thighs, belly and underside of the tail, which contrasted sharply with "un noir profond" of the flanks and sides of the body -they describe the anterior of the creature as slate-coloured, and the breast whitish-grey. Clearly, dead animals discolour somewhat when preserved, or at least did so with the methods of two centuries ago!
Common names
It has traditionally been called the white-throated clawed gecko or white-throated gecko in English, which is a calque of its scientific name. The name yellow-headed gecko is now commonly used for this species in the United States, but it originally applied to Gonatodes fuscus, now G. albogularis fuscus, which is the subspecies formerly found as an introduced species in Florida. In Venezuela it is known as mea-mea or machurito in Spanish. In La Guajira, where the language is the Arawakan Wayuunaiki or heavily influenced by it, this gecko is called curumachár or culumasár. The Mexican Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad officiated the vernacular name in Spanish of geco cabeza amarilla in 2001. A name in Colombia is güeco cabeciamarillo. Another Spanish name is limpiacasa. The Papiamento name for this gecko (and most other species) is pega-pega.