Discovery of geckos, Sphaerodactylus macrolepis Günther and Sphaerodactylus sputator Sparrman, on Prickly Pear Cays, Anguilla, British West Indies

Abstract

I report the first records of Sphaerodactylus from the Prickly Pear Cays of Anguilla. Two species of the genus are known from the Anguilla Bank, S. parvus and S. sputator, but neither has been recorded from the Prickly Pear Cays (Hodge et al. 2003, Powell and Henderson 2012). Here, I document the occurrence of S. sputator and S. macrolepis on those islands, the latter species being a native of the Puerto Rico region and not known previously to occur on the Anguilla Bank. I went to Prickly Pear Cays on 26–30th March 2018 with my colleague, Jonas Hochart, to make an inventory of the flora during conservation work for Iguana delicatissama. Once there, we also explored the fauna of the cays and soon located a population of S. macrolepis on Prickly Pear Cay East. Lizards were in the center of the island and on the rocky coast. It was not found on Prickly Pear Cay West. We found S. sputator to be common on both cays. With three species of Sphaerodactylus now known from the Anguilla Bank, I have constructed a table to aid in their identification (Table 1). Prickly Pear East is uninhabited, but has two restaurants and is visited daily by tourists and charter boats. Sphaerodactylus macrolepis may have been inadvertently transported by charter boats based in the Virgin Islands. This would explain why this species is present on Prickly Pear East and not on Prickly Pear West, which is only rarely visited. Given the presence of Sphaerodactylus sputator on the islands of the Anguilla Bank surrounding the Prickly Pear Cays, it was either introduced from those nearby islands or was native and overlooked until now.