Mount Sinai gecko

The Mount Sinai gecko (Hemidactylus mindiae) is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Egypt.

Mount Sinai gecko
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Gekkonidae
Genus:	Hemidactylus
Species:	H. mindiae
Binomial name
Hemidactylus mindiae S. Baha El Din, 2005[1]

Habitat

The natural habitats of H. mindiae are rocky areas, caves, rural gardens, and urban areas.

Conservation status

The Mount Sinai gecko is threatened by habitat loss.

Etymology

The specific epithet, mindiae, commemorates the late Mindy Baha El Din, an environmentalist and herpetologist from Egypt. She was the wife of Sherif Baha El Din, also a herpetologist, who described this lizard as a new species.[2]

References

1. "Hemidactylus mindiae ". ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System). www.itis.gov.
2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011).The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Hemidactylus mindiae, p. 178).

Further reading

• Baha El Din, Sherif M. (2005). "An overview of Egyptian species of Hemidactylus (Gekkonidae), with the description of a new species from the high mountains of South Sinai". Zoology in the Middle East 34: 11–26. (Hemidactylus mindiae, new species). (in English, plus abstract in German).

External links

• Baha El Din, S. (2005). Hemidactylus mindiae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 28 July 2007.