Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Chile, 63: 73-76 (2014)

Tarentola mauritanica (Linnaeus, 1758), a New Species of Lizard for Chile (Reptilia, Phyllodactylidae)

Cristóbal Arredondo (1) and Herman Núñez (2) (1) Programa Magister en Ciencias Animales y Veterinarias, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile; (2) Área Vertebrados, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Casilla 787, Santiago, Chile;


Tarentola mauritanica, salamanquesa común and Geco mediterráneo (in Spanish), Moorish Wall Gecko and Moorish Gecko (in English), is a widespread gecko around the Mediterranean African and European zones (Joger 1984; see also, including Greece and Crete (ibid.). The last source describes introduced populations in the north of Italy, Balearic Islands, and Tenerife. The Moorish Wall Gecko is a species that exploits human resources to inhabit areas beyond its original Mediterranean distribution. Outside Europe and north Africa, it has been introduced and established in San Diego County in the U.S. (Mahrdt 1998; see more details in