Geographic Distribution: Tarentola mauritanica (Common Wall Gecko)e

VERA, DAVID GUSTAVO; SANTIAGO TORRES; BERKUNSKY, IGOR

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

Society for the study of Amphibians and Reptiles

Año: 2022 vol. 53 p. 444 - 444

0018-084X

Tarentola mauritanica is a native gecko from the coastal Mediterranean region; which has been introduced in Argentina, Azores archipelago, Bolivia, Chile, United States, Madeira and Porto Santo islands, Mexico, and Uruguay. This gecko species showed a huge potential to colonize new sites, especially urban environments. In Argentina, Tarentola mauritanica is present since 1963, and the most likely hypothesis refers to this case as an accidental introduction associated to naval traffic. The reports of Tarentola mauritanica in Argentina are from Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Rosario, Salta and Tucumán provinces. The presence of Tarentola mauritanica was recorded in a house from Tandil city, in the center of the Buenos Aires province, Argentina. This record extends the known geographic distribution ca. 302 km (airline) from Parque Chacabuco (Buenos Aires, Argentina), which was the previous nearest known locality for the species.