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Type: Article
Published: 2020-01-29
Page range: 249–265
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Two more new Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker, 1860 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Tamil Nadu, India

Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Vaibhav Chambers, BKC, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India Ecology and Evolution, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, 560065, India
Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA
Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Dr Salim Ali Chowk, Mumbai 400001, India Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Vaibhav Chambers, BKC, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India Ecology and Evolution, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, 560065, India
Reptilia Biodiversity hotspot cryptic species Gekkonidae massif peninsular India taxonomy Western Ghats

Abstract

Two new species of the gekkonid genus Hemiphyllodactylus are described from mountains of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, southern India. Hemiphyllodactylus nilgiriensis sp. nov. and H. peninsularis sp. nov. are > 5 % divergent in the mitochondrial ND2 gene from each other and members of the H. aurantiacus complex and differ from each other and members of the H. aurantiacus complex in several meristic characters and colouration. The description of these two new species takes the number of Indian Hemiphyllodactylus to six and the number of endemic geckos from Tamil Nadu to 15.

 

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