New records of Mediodactylus kotschyi and Hemidactylus turcicus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Astypalea Island, Greece

Kotschyʼs gecko, Mediodactylus kotschyi (Steindachner, 1870) and the Mediterranean house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Chondropoulos, 1986; Valakos et al., 2008). Mediodactylus kotschyi is an eastern Mediterranean faunal element occurring from south-eastern Italy and the southern Balkans (including most of the Ionian and Aegean islands) through southern Turkey to Cyprus and the Levant (e.g. Beutler, 1981; Scillitani et al., 2004; Stojanov et al., 2011; Schwarz et al., 2016; Speybroeck et al., 2016; Mizsei et al., 2017). Hemidactylus turcicus is widely distributed in most regions of the Mediterranean basin, including Asia Minor and the Levant in the east. Also, this species occurs on many Mediterranean islands (e.g. the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, Cyprus, and several islands in the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas; e.g. Salvador, 1981; Moravec, et al., 2011; Sillero et al., 2014; Speybroeck et al., 2016; Mizsei et al., 2017). Within their Greek ranges, both species occur on Crete and nearby islets, as well as on some of the Aegean island groups including the Cyclades, Dodecanese and several islands in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea (e.g. Schneider, 1983; Chondropoulos, 1986; Buttle, 1989; Foufopoulos, 1997; Bader et al., 2009; Wilson and Grillitsch, 2009; Rato et al., 2011; Grano et al., 2015; Itescu et al., 2016). Despite a relatively long-standing tradition of herpetological research on the Greek islands (Pafilis, 2010), Astypalea ranks among those less considered, due to which almost no records of amphibians and reptiles with full field details are available from the island. The first evidence of geckos from Astypalea was published by Wettstein (1937, 1953), who recorded M. kotschyi and H. turcicus in May 1935. He collected (the name of the island he originally quoted as Astropalia) 31 individuals (15 males, 16 females) of M. kotschyi and 6 adult individuals of H. turcicus. To our best knowledge, further data on gecko occurrence on Astypalea were published only in reviews that did not include faunistic details (e.g. Beutler, 1981; Salvador, 1981; Valakos et al., 2008; Speybroeck et al., 2016). The only exception in recent literature is the phylogeographic study of M. kotschyi conducted by Kasapidis et al. (2005), in which the authors analysed three samples of this species from Astypalea, but no field details (e.g., a collection date or a locality) were provided. Here, we present new records of M. kotschyi and H. turcicus from Astypalea, which were collected during a field trip conducted in September 2017. Reptiles were surveyed by inspecting potential hiding places; e.g. abandoned and/or ruined buildings, churches, caves, rocky overhangs, etc. Altogether, 28 potential habitats were inspected, but only in four of them (ca. 14%) geckos were found (Fig. 1). The first observation of M. kotschyi was made on the mountain ridge between the island capital (Chora) and Psili Vighla Mt. (314 m), where we found this species in two abandoned houses situated respectively ca. 0.5 km and 1.5 km north-west of the church of Aghios Ioannis Omologhitis (house 1: 36.5603° N, 26.3371° E, 193 m; house 2: 36.5617° N, 26.3252° E, 234 m; Fig. 2A). Two M. kotschyi were observed inside each house on 26 September 2017. In house 1, geckos were observed again on 29 September 2017. Both houses were built similarly from concrete blocks and roofed by steel sheets on a wooden grid. The geckos moved freely on the walls inside, and when escaping, hid in fissures between the blocks or the wooden parts of the houses Herpetology Notes, volume 11: 275-278 (2018) (published online on 11 April 2018)