TY - JOUR T1 - On the origin of South American populations of the common house gecko (Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus frenatus) JF - NeoBiota JO - NB M3 - 10.3897/neobiota.27.5437 VL - 27 AU - Torres-Carvajal, Omar Y1 - 15/09/2015 UR - https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.27.5437 N2 - Hemidactylus frenatus is an Asian gecko species that has invaded many tropical regions to become one of the most widespread lizards worldwide. This species has dispersed across the Pacific Ocean to reach Hawaii and subsequently Mexico and other Central American countries. More recently, it has been reported from northwestern South America. Using 12S and cytb mitochondrial DNA sequences I found that South American and Galápagos haplotypes are identical to those from Hawaii and Papua New Guinea, suggesting a common Melanesian origin for both Hawaii and South America. Literature records suggest that H. frenatus arrived in Colombia around the mid-‘90s, dispersed south into Ecuador in less than five years, and arrived in the Galápagos about one decade later. PB - Pensoft Publishers SP - 69-79 SN - 1619-0033 SN - 1314-2488 IS - ER -