ИСТИНА

Most of the species of Ptyodactylus genus are known for their acoustic behavior in social contexts. Calls from several Ptyodactylus species were recorded and analyzed. Each call was a series of clicks, similar in frequency. Calls were differ between species by the following parameters: number of clicks in the call, intervals between clicks inside a call, dominant frequency of the clicks, length of the call and the repetition rate of the clicks in one call. Acoustic communication is essential in the reproductive cycle of these geckos and certainly is a barrier to the formation of interspecific hybrids. During the interspecies encounters males vocalization falls sharply or completely stops in a presence of the females of the heterospecies, while encounters of conspecific animals (even from different populations) increases the acoustic activity. We conducted behavioral and acoustical encounter experiments involving heterosexual pairs of several Ptyodactylus species including Pt. ananjevae Nazarov, Melnikov; Melnikova 2013; Pt. dhofarensis Nazarov, Melnikov; Melnikova, 2013; Pt. guttatus Heyden, 1827; Pt. hasselquistii Donndorff, 1798; Pt. orlovi Nazarov, Melnikov; Melnikova 2013; Pt. oudrii Latastel,1880; Pt. puiseuxi Boutan, 1893 and Pt. ragazzi Boutan, 1893. to confirm that acoustic behaviors are induced in the presence of conspecifics. Our data shows strong differences between calls from nine species of Ptyodactylus genus, also we describes the acoustic repertoire of newly described species of this genus. A comparison of the acoustic repertoire differences with the results of molecular analysis of different genes are likely to reveal the general direction of the formation of taxonomic groups in this group of geckos.