Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2020-06-17
Page range: 57–84
Abstract views: 108
PDF downloaded: 5

A new large-bodied, rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) allied to Cnemaspis heteropholis Bauer, 2002 from the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India 

Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Vaibhav Chambers, BKC, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 560065, India
Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Vaibhav Chambers, BKC, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India
Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Dr. Salim Ali Chowk, Mumbai 400001, India.
Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Vaibhav Chambers, BKC, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 560065, India
Reptilia Biodiversity hotspot cryptic species dwarf geckos nocturnal taxonomy Western Ghats

Abstract

We describe a new large-bodied, rupicolous Cnemaspis from near Sakleshpur in the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Cnemaspis magnifica sp. nov. is allied to C. heteropholis and can be diagnosed from all other Indian Cnemaspis by the absence of spine-like scales on flank; heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis, presence of only femoral pores in males, homogenous dorsal pholidosis of tail with small, smooth, regularly arranged, flattened, subimbricate scales, without whorls of enlarged tubercles, median row of sub-caudals enlarged and smooth. The new species differs from its closest congener C. heteropholis in body size, the number of longitudinal ventral scales, number of lamellae under digit I and IV of manus and pes, and subtle colour pattern differences; besides 9.1 % uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. We provide the first description of topotypic male of C. heteropholis along with data on its distribution and natural history. The discovery of Cnemaspis magnifica sp. nov. with minimal field survey effort indicates the need for further herpetological exploration in the region.

 

References

  1. Agarwal, I., Biswas, S., Bauer, A.M., Greenbaum, E., Jackman, T.R., de Silva, A. & Batuwita, S. (2017) Cryptic species, taxonomic inflation, or a bit of both? New species phenomenon in Sri Lanka as suggested by a phylogeny of dwarf geckos (Reptilia, Squamata, Gekkonidae, Cnemaspis). Systematics and Biodiversity, 15, 427–439.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2017.1282553

    Agarwal, I., Thackeray, T., Pal, S. & Khandekar, A. (2020a) Granite boulders act as deep-time climate refugia: a Miocene divergent clade of rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Mysore Plateau, India, with descriptions of three new species. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. [in press]

    Agarwal, I., Bauer, A.M. & Khandekar, A. (2020b) A new species of South Asian Cnemaspis (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Eastern Ghats, India. Zootaxa. [in press]

    Bauer, A.M. (2002) Two new species of Cnemaspis (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Gund, Uttara Kannada, India. Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut, 99, 155–167.

    Biswas, S. (2006) A possible occurrence of regional integumentary loss in Cnemaspis heteropholis from southern India. Gekko, 5, 28–30.

    Cyriac, V.P. & Umesh, P.K. (2013) Current status of Cnemaspis littoralis (Jerdon, 1853) (Sauria: Gekkonidae) with designation of a neotype. Taprobanica: The Journal of Asian Biodiversity, 5, 36–43.

    https://doi.org/10.4038/tapro.v5i1.5660

    Cyriac, V.P. & Umesh, P.K. (2014) Description of a new ground-dwelling Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae), from Kerala, allied to C. wynadensis (Beddome, 1870). Russian Journal of Herpetology, 21, 187–194.

    Cyriac, V.P., Johny, A., Umesh, P.K. & Palot, M.J. (2018) Description of two new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Zootaxa, 4459 (1), 85–100.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4459.1.3

    Cyriac, V.P., Johny, A., Umesh, P.K., Palot, M.J. & Campbell, P.D. (2019) Rediscovery of Cnemaspis nilagirica Manamendra-Arachchi, Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, 2007 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Kerala, India with notes on morphology and distribution. Zootaxa, 4586 (1), 098–108.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4586.1.4

    Gamble, T., Greenbaum, E., Jackman, T. R. & Bauer, A. M. (2015). Into the light: diurnality has evolved multiple times in geckos. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 115, 896–910.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12536

    Ganesh, S.R., Sreekar, R., Pal, S.P., Ramchandra, G., Srinivasulu, C. & Srinivasulu, B. (2011) Discovery and first description of male Cnemaspis heteropholis Bauer, 2002 (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) from Agumbe, central Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 3, 2023–2027.

    https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2614.2023-7

    Giri, V.B., Agarwal, I. & Bauer, A.M. (2009) Designation of a neotype for Cnemaspis mysoriensis (Jerdon 1853)(Sauria: Gekkonidae), with a redescription and notes on its distribution and habitat. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 16, 256–264.

    Grismer, L.L., Wood Jr, P.L., Anuar, S., Riyanto, A., Ahmad, N., Muin, M.A., Sumontha, M., Grismer, J.L., Onn, C.K., Quah, E.S. & Pauwels, O.S. (2014) Systematics and natural history of Southeast Asian Rock Geckos (genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887) with descriptions of eight new species from Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Zootaxa, 3880 (1), 1–147.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3880.1.1

    IUCN (2012) IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1. 2nd Edition. IUCN, Gland and Cambridge, iv + 32 pp.

    Karunarathna, S., Poyarkov, N.A., de Silva, A., Madawala, M., Botejue, M., Gorin, V.A., Surasinghe, T., Gabadage, D., Ukuwela, K. & Bauer, A.M. (2019a) Integrative taxonomy reveals six new species of day geckos of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from geographically isolated hill forests in Sri Lanka. Vertebrate Zoology, 64, 247–298.

    https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-02

    Karunarathna, S., de Silva, A., Botejue, M., Gabadage, D., Somaratna, L., Hettige, A., Aberathna, M., Madawala, M., Edirisinghe, G., Perera, N., Wickramaarachchi, S., Surasinghe, T., Karunarathna, N., Wickramasinghe, M., Ukuwela, K.D.B. & Bauer, A.M. (2019b) Three new species of day geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae: Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887) from isolated granite cave habitats in Sri Lanka. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, 13, 323–354.

    Khandekar, A. (2019) A new species of rock-dwelling Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Tamil Nadu, southern India. Zootaxa, 4571 (3), 383–397.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4571.3.6

    Khandekar, A., Gaitonde, N. & Agarwal, I. (2019a) Two new Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Shevaroy massif, Tamil Nadu, India, with a preliminary ND2 phylogeny of Indian Cnemaspis. Zootaxa, 4609 (1), 68–100.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4609.1.3

    Khandekar, A., Thackeray, T. & Agarwal, I. (2019b) Two more new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India. Zootaxa, 4656, 043–070.

    Lee, J.L., Miller, A.H., Zug, G.R. & Mulcahy, D.G. (2019) The discovery of Rock Geckos Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in the Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar with the description of two new species. Zootaxa, 4661 (1), 40–64.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4661.1.2

    Mace, G.M. (2004) The role of taxonomy in species conservation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359, 711–719.

    https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2003.1454

    Macey, J.R., Larson, A., Ananjeva, N.B., Fang, Z. & Papenfuss, T.J. (1997) Two novel gene orders and the role of light-strand replication in rearrangement of the vertebrate mitochondrial genome. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 14, 91–104.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025706

    Manamendra-Arachchi, K., Batuwita, S. & Pethiagoda, R. (2007) A taxonomic revision of the Sri Lankan day-geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae: Cnemaspis), with description of new species from Sri Lanka & southern India. Zeylanica, 7, 9–122.

    Mirza, Z.A., Bhosale, H. & Sanap, S. (2013) First description of male Hemidactylus sataraensis Giri & Bauer 2008 (Sauria: Gekkonidae) with notes on its natural history, distribution and conservation status. Hamadryad, 36, 177–180.

    Mukherjee, D., Bhupathy, S. & Nixon, A.M.A. (2005) A new species of day gecko (Squamata, Gekkonidae, Cnemaspis) from the Anaikatti Hills, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Current Science, 89, 1326–1328.

    Murthy, C.H.B., Nitesh, A., Sengupta, S. & Deepak, P. (2019) A new species of Day Gecko of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata : Gekkonidae) from the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, India. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, 119, 211–226.

    https://doi.org/10.26515/rzsi/v119/i3/2019/143339

    Smith, M.A. (1935) The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma; Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. II. Sauria. Taylor and Francis, London, xiv + 440 pp., 2 folding maps, 1 pl.

    Stamatakis, A. (2006) RAxML-VI-HPC: maximum likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses with thousands of taxa and mixed models. Bioinformatics, 22, 2688–2690.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btl446

    Sayyed, A., Pyron, R.A. & Dileepkumar, R. (2018) Four new species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from the northern Western Ghats, India. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, 12, 1–29.

    Sayyed, A., Grismer, L.L., Campbell, D.P. & Dileepkumar, R. (2019) Description of a new cryptic new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Western Ghats of Kerala State of India. Zootaxa, 4656 (3), 501–514.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4656.3.7

    Srinivasulu, C., Srinivasulu, B. & Molur, S. (Compilers) (2014) The Status and Distribution of Reptiles in the Western Ghats, India. Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP). Wildlife Information Laision Development Society, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 148 pp.

    Stamatakis, A. (2006) RAxML-VI-HPC: maximum likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses with thousands of taxa and mixed models. Bioinformatics, 22, 2688–2690.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btl446

    Tamura, K., Peterson, D., Peterson, N., Stecher, G., Nei, M. & Kumar, S. (2011) MEGA5: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 28, 2731–2739.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msr121

    Uetz, P., Freed, P. & Hošek, J. (2019) The Reptile Database. Available from: http://www.reptile-database.org (accessed 22 December 2019)

    Vidanapathirana, D.R., Rajeev, M.D.G., Wickramasinghe, N., Fernando, S.S. & Wickramasinghe, L.J.M. (2014) Cnemaspis rammalensis sp. nov., Sri Lanka’s largest day-gecko (Sauria: Gekkonidae: Cnemaspis) from Rammalakanda Man and Biosphere Reserve in southern Sri Lanka. Zootaxa, 3755 (3), 273–286.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3755.3.5

    Wickramasinghe, L.J.M. & Munindradasa, D.A.I. (2007) Review of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Sauria: Gekkonidae) in Sri Lanka with the description of five new species. Zootaxa, 1490 (1), 1–63.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1490.1.1