oa New record of a lizard species for Qatar: The Persian leaf-toed gecko, Hemidactylus persicus Anderson, 1872 (Gekkonidae)

We report here the discovery of a gecko species, the Persian leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus persicus Anderson, 1872 (Gekkonidae) in Qatar that was found on Halul Island. According to the Qatar National Biodiversity Surveys and the available international literature H. persicus was not previously recorded in Qatar. Its known range covers the north east of the Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and south western Asia. Our findings bridge the current geographic gap in the known distribution of the species from Saudi Arabia to Asia. We believe that the species could be also present in the Qatar peninsula. A thorough field survey is needed in order to map the range of this species in the State of Qatar.