TAXONOMIC STATUS OF THE HONG-KONG POPULATIONS OF THE HEMIDACTYLUS-GARNOTII-VIETNAMENSIS COMPLEX (GEKKONIDAE, REPTILIA)

Karyological investigations revealed that populations of the Hemidacty lus garnotii-vietnamensis complex in Hong Kong have 2n=3x=63 chromosom es, of which the two largest triplets consist of biarmed, and the thir d triplet of one subtelocentric and two telocentric chromosomes. This karyotype more or less differs from those of the two known members of the complex from Asia (i.e., H. vietnamensis and H. stejnegeri), and i s almost identical to the karyotype of H. garnotii from the Pacific is lands. Although there are slight external differences between the Hong Kong and Pacific islands specimens, it seems appropriate to identify the former as H. garnotii (sensu stricto).