In the last 4 years IBE researchers have been able to build an impressive database of morphological and molecular data of the nocturnal geckos of the genus Hemidactylus that is being used for many ongoing systematic, biogeographic, consevation and comparative studies.

In the present paper, researchers revise the taxonomy of the Hemidactylus robustus species group using molecules and morphology and describe three new species, two endemic from Yemen and one from Ethiopia. With these three new additions, the total number of new species of Hemidactylus described by or group reaches 16 and will certainly increase in the next few years. With its 132 recognized species, the genus Hemidactylus ranks among the top five species-rich reptile genera.

Reference article: Jiří Šmíd, Jiří Moravec, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Abdul K. Nasher, Tomáš Mazuch, Václav Gvoždík & Salvador Carranza. 2015. Multilocus phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the Hemidactylus robustus species group (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) with descriptions of three new species from Yemen and Ethiopia, Systematics and Biodiversity, 1-23 (DOI: 10.1080/14772000.2014.996264)