Serpent Island gecko


The Serpent Island gecko is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Mauritius.

Subspecies and distribution

Two subspecies are recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies, found on the two outlying islets:
On Mauritius itself Nactus serpensinsula is only known from fossils.

Etymology

The subspecific name, durrellorum, is in honor of English zookeeper Gerald Durrell
and his second wife, American-born zookeeper Lee McGeorge Durrell.

Taxonomy

When naming their new subspecies in 1994, :fr:Edwin Nicholas Arnold|Arnold and Jones used durrelli, which is genetive singular, as the subspecific name. In 2004 Michels and :fr:Aaron Matthew Bauer|Bauer pointed out that because the subspecies is named in honor of two people, the subspecific name should be in the genetive plural. Accordingly, they changed durrelli to durrellorum.