Mediodactylus orientalis (Štěpánek, 1937) (Sauria: Gekkonidae) in Greece

Mediodactylus orientalis reaches its western distributional margin in the eastern Aegean Sea, but its occurrence in Greece has long remained poorly resolved because of morphological similarity and historical taxonomic confusion with other congeners. We synthesize all available evidence for Greece by integrating published and genetically verified records with unpublished museum material and targeted field observations to refine the species' insular range and ecological profile. We examined 53 specimens housed in the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW) from the Ikaria-Fourni-Patmos Island systems and generated new mitochondrial COI sequences for selected specimens, which we compared with publicly available reference data. Greek populations form a largely near-coastal chain from Ikaria and the Fourni complex in the north to the Patmos, Arki, and Lipsi groups in the Dodecanese. We document three new Greek island records (Kentronissi, Ayios Georgios, Ayia Thekla), extending the confirmed distribution within the Patmos complex. We also provide the first genetic confirmation for the Lipsi group and identify a fine-scale island-by-island distributional boundary with M. kotschyi toward the Cyclades and southern Dodecanese. High intraspecific diversity across geographically proximate Greek islands and the adjacent Turkish mainland suggests a distribution shaped by past vicariant events. Field observations on Ikaria indicate a saxicolous, nocturnal ecology and an elevational occurrence of up to 750 m a.s.l. Remaining distribution gaps, especially the Leros-Kalymnos-Kos-Pserimos area, represent a priority zone for testing contact, coexistence, and possible anthropogenic dispersal.