Gehyra veriegata ogasawarasimae was described in 1930 from Chichijima Island of the Ogasawara Group, Japan, and then was reported to have 2n=63 chromosomes in 1949. Subsequently this taxon was synonymized with
Lepidodactylus lugubris, a parthenogenetic species complex consisting of a number of diploid-triploid clones distributed in tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. The above chromosome number, as well as dorsal color pattern of an individual illustrated in a figure of its original description, suggests that the type of
G. v. ogasawarasimae (lost) belonged to a triploid clone of
L. lugubris. However, all
L. lugubris recently collected from Chichijima Island and another island of the Ogasawara Group had only 2n=44 chromosomes and belonged to a diploid clone, so-called clone A. A survey of museum specimens of
L. lugubris collected from Chichijima Island during 1960-1970s yielded three specimens showing dorsal pattern characteristic of a triploid clone, so-called clone C. These suggest that the triploid clone C previously occurred on Chichijima Island and was erroneously described as
Gehyra variegata ogasawarasimae. This clone may have been displaced by the diploid clone A through interclonal competition after recent colonization of the latter to Chichijima and other Ogasawara islands.
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