BREVIORA Mmseiim of Comparative Zoology Cambridge, Mass. May 15, 1964 Number 204 THE STATUS OF PSEUDOGEKKO SHEBAE AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE GECKOS OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS By Walter C. Brown^ INTRODUCTION Brown and Tanner (1949) referred a unique specimen (Brig-ham Young University [BYU], No. 7002) of a previously un-described geckonid lizard from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to the new species shebae in the genus Pseudogekko Taylor (1922), thus establishing the second species known for the genus and extending the range to include a second peri-pheral group of islands, analogous in position to the Philippines. At that time we had not had the opportunity of examining any material of the type species of the genus, the Philippine species Pseudogekko compressicorpus. New material has now provided the opportunity to reassess the relationships of P. shehae and to redefine its differences from the other small geckos of the Solomon Islands. Dr. Ernest Williams, Museum of Comparative Zoology, recently called my attention to the difficulty of identifying certain specimens, which, on the basis of descriptions in the literature, were apparently referable either to Lepidodactylus guppyi or Pseudogekko shehae. The series of specimens in question (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Nos. 64152, 65862, 67122, 67124, 74517-19, and Stanford Uni-versity, No. 23720) were collected by Mr. Fred Parker on Bougainville Island, Solomon Islands, during 1961-62. These have provided the point of departure for the present paper. This study is part of the author's investigations on the herpetofaunas of the Islands of the Pacific area, supported by 1 Division of Systematic Biology, Stanford University and Menlo College, Menlo Park, California.
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