Selection of egg attachment sites by the Indian Golden Gecko Calodactylodes aureus (Beddome, 1870) (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

InTRoduCTIonThe Indian Golden Gecko Calodactylodes aureus (Beddome, 1870) was rediscovered in 1986 after more than 100 years (Daniel et al. 1986;Russell & Bauer 1989). The genus Calodactylodes (Beddome, 1870) is restricted to tropical South Asia and is represented by two species: the Indian Golden Gecko Calodactylodes aureus (Beddome, 1870) and the Sri Lankan Golden Gecko Calodactylodes illingworthorum (Deraniyagala, 1953). The Indian Golden Gecko is distributed along the coastal hills of Andhra Pradesh, southern Chhattisgarh, southern Orissa and northern Tamil Nadu regions of India (

The Indian Golden Gecko, Calodactylodes aureus (Beddome, 1870) in Tamil Nadu, India

“…This may be due to relatively lower predation pressure in crevices compared to the caves. Sreekar et al (2010) found that sites that have eggs attached to roofs of caves averaging more than three meters from the ground and that sites in which eggs were laid in crevices had greater success relative to the eggs that were laid at a distance less than one meter from the ground. The gecko has been reported to lay eggs mostly on vertical rocks (Sreekar et al, 2010) but we found that 71% of eggs were laid attached on the horizontal roof of caves and rock boulders.…”

“…In a few sites eggs were laid at an older egg deposition site. Sreekar et al (2010) found that viable eggs were only found during late June to September. In our study we noticed viable eggs between December 2010 and April 2011.…”

“…Calodactylodes aureus (Beddome, 1870), the first described species in the genus, was originally recorded from the Tirupati Hills, Andhra Pradesh state in India (Daniel et al, 1986). In Andhra Pradesh, in addition to the type locality, it is recorded from the Araku Valley (Chettri & Bhupathy, 2010) and the Ananthagiri Hills (Sreekar et al, 2010) both in the Visakhapatnam District, from Perantalapally in the Khammam District (Javed et al, 2007;Sreekar et al, 2010), from Maredumilli in the East Godavari District (Sreekar et al, 2010), the Seshachalam Hills in Chittoor and Kadapa Districts (Guptha et al, 2012) and the Tirumala Hills in Chittoor District (Nanda Kumar et al, 2000). In Orissa state the species has been reported from Rayagada and Kalahandi Districts in the Niyamgiri Hills (Dutta et al, 2005).…”

“…The habitat characteristic of Calodactylodes aureus is very similar to the habitat of the Sri Lankan species, Calodactylodes illingworthorum, which is also found to occur between circa 125 to 800 m a.s.l, mostly in granite rock caves (Karunarathna & Amarasinghe, 2011). According to Sreekar et al (2010) this gecko prefers rocky areas with deep stream valleys. We also found that water is one of the essential aspects for choosing sites to live, as 63% of sites recorded were within 30-m distance of a water source.…”

“…This may be related to prey abundance. Sreekar et al (2010) reported that the gecko mainly feeds on insects and spiders.…”