During a study on the population density of the peninsular rock agama on the 16th Nov 2009 in Rishi valley, Andhra Pradesh, India (13o32’ N, 78o28’ E; ca. 750m elevation), RS (first author) observed a large adult male Psammophilus dorsalis holding a medium sized Hemidactylus species between its jaws. The agamid was sighted with the mid-body of the gecko in its jaws at 10:30 h on a sheet-rock. Soon, the agamid made another powerful bite with its inner teeth and swallowed it alive,

head first. RS assumed the size of the gecko to be around 40 mm from snout to vent. The adult male agamid measured 140mm from snout to vent and weighed 82g. The gecko was identified as Hemidactylus treutleri by the large spines on the tail and large keeled tubercles on the dorso-lateral side of the body. The identification of the gecko was further supported by the fact, that the survey site yielded only H. treutleri and no other gecko.

The Peninsular rock agama P. dorsalis (Gray, 1831) occurs in most of Peninsular India, Madhya Pradesh and along the hills of the Eastern Ghats (Smith, 1935; Daniel, 2002; Chandra and Gajbe, 2005). Its food was considered to consist almost entirely of insects (Daniel, 2002; Radder et al., 2005). Hemidactylus treutleri Mahony, 2009 was recently described from Hyderabad, Andhra

Herpetology Notes, volume 3: 033-035 (2010) (published online on 1 February 2010)

Predation on Hemidactylus treutleri (Squamata: Gekkonidae) by the peninsular rock agama Psammophilus dorsalis

(Squamata: Agamidae) in Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India

Rachakonda Sreekar1*, Shreekant Deodhar2 and Yashada Kulkarni1

1 National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK campus, Bangalore 560065, India; email: sreekar1988@gmail.com

2 Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India; email: shreekant@ces.iisc.ernet.in

* corresponding author

Abstract. Report on a predation event by an adult Psammophilus dorsalis on a Hemidactylus treutleri, observed at Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India. Hemidactylus treutleri is recorded for the first time outside of its type locality extending its range.

Keywords. Psammophilus dorsalis, Hemidactylus treutleri, predation, range extension.

Figure 1. Psammophilus dorsalis adult male from Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Rachakonda Sreekar et al.34

Figure 2. Hemidactylus treutleri adult male from Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Figure 3. Map showing records of Hemidactylus treutleri in Andhra Pradesh state, India. Black: type locality, Red: current record.

Predation on Hemidactylus treutleri by Psammophilus dorsalis 35

Pradesh, India (17o24’ N, 78o28’ E; ca. 500m elevation) and is known only from its type locality. This record extends the range of H. treutleri for ca. 350 km (Fig 3). Hemidactylus treutleri was consistently misidentified as Hemidactylus brookii (Romulus Whitaker, pers. comm.) due to morphological similarities (Mahony, 2009). The main characters in distinguishing H. treutleri from H. brookii are 7-8 non-pore bearing scales between the pre-cloacal femoral pores (vs 1 non-pore baring scale) and 3 postcloacal spurs, posterior most spur significantly larger than the anterior pair which are of the equal size (vs 2 equally sized postcloacal spurs).

There have been no records of P. dorsalis feeding on other smaller lizards in the past. However, this might be likely as skinks were found in the diet of its sister species Psammophilus blanfordanus (Aruna et al., 1993) which is smaller in length when compared. There could be an inter-sexual dietary divergence in this species of agamid due to clear sexual size dimorphisms (Smith, 1935; Radder et al., 2006). Further detailed studies are needed to prove this supposition.

Acknowledgements. We thank Rishi Valley School for providing logistics; Romulus Whitaker, Stephen Mahony and Zeeshan A. Mirza for useful comments on the draft manuscript; Suhel Quader and Kavita Isvaran for mentoring the study.

ReferencesAruna, C.H., Reddy, T.B., Rao, M.V.S. (1993): Feeding ecology

of Psammophilus blanfordanus (Stoliczka). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 90(2):295-296.

Chandra, K., Gajbe, P.U. (2005): An inventory of herpetofauna of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Zoos’ Print Journal 20(3): 1812-1819.

Daniel, J.C. (2002): The book of Indian reptiles and amphibians. Oxford University Press, Mumbai.

Mahony, S. (2009): A new species of gecko of the genus Hemi-dactylus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) from Andhra Pradesh, India. Russian Journal of Herpetology 16(1): 27-34.

Radder, R.S., Saidapur, S.K., Shanbhag, B.A. (2005): Population density, microhabitat use and activity pattern of the Indian rock lizard, Psammophilus dorsalis. Current Science 89: 560-565.

Radder, R.S., Saidapur, S.K., Shanbhag, B.A. (2006): Big boys on top: effects of body size, sex and reproductive state on per-ching behaviour in the tropical rock dragon, Psammophilus dorsalis. Animal Biology 56: 311-321.

Smith, M.A. (1935): The fauna of British India. Reptilia and Am-phibia, Vol. II-Sauria. Taylor and Francis, London.

Accepted by Angelica Crottini; Managing Editor: Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani

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