Photograph of the new species, Hemidactylus aaronbaueri, Ashok Captain.

A new species of a rock-dwelling lizard has been discovered by the Bombay Natural History Society from Junnar taluka in Pune district, India.

The species belongs to genus Hemidactylus.

This distinctive gecko species is mostly found on the rock cliffs in the north western ghats, an official release from BNHS stated.

This new species was first photographed by Pune herpetologist Ashok Captain, who forwarded the same to Varad Giri, a scientist with the Bombay Natural History Society at Mumbai.

Giri worked on the photographs and subsequently Captain, Giri and fellow researcher Aparna Watwe from Pune conducted a search and reported more specimens from that region.

Giri later forwarded the details of the species to Aaron Bauer of USA’s Villanova University, who is an expert on lizards and an authority in this group.

Giri submitted his findings of the species to a scientific journal, Hamdryad and named this new species as Hemidactylus aaronbaueri, honoring Baeur, the release said.

In India, there are 21 species in this genus. This new lizard from Maharashtra is interestingly the largest species of Hemidactylus from India, the release added.

Source: The Hindu, Thursday, May 1, 2008.