Cnemaspis psychedelica Grismer, Ngo & Grismer, 2010

Grismer, Lee, Wood, Perry L., Anuar, Shahrul, Riyanto, Awal, Ahmad, Norhayati, Muin, Mohd A., Sumontha, Montri, Grismer, Jesse L., Onn, Chan Kin, Quah, Evan S. H. & Pauwels, Olivier S. A., 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), pp. 1-147 : 24-27

Cnemaspis psychedelica Grismer, Ngo & Grismer, 2010

Psychedelic Rock Gecko

Fig. 8

Cnemaspis psychadelica Bauer 2013:42 .

Holotype. UNS 0444 . Type locality: “ Hon Khoai Island , Ca Mau Province, Ngoc Hien District, Vietnam (08°26.098 N, 104°49.536 E)” at 30 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 75.3 mm; 7–10 supralabials; 5–8 infralabials; smooth ventral scales; no precloacal pores; 34–48 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles linearly arranged especially on flanks; lateral caudal furrows absent; caudal tubercles restricted to a single paravertebral row; subcaudals smooth, bearing a medial row of enlarged scales; one or two postcloacal tubercles on each side; smooth, enlarged, plate-like femoral and subtibial scales; enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 24–28 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; occiput and nape bearing a dense, yellow reticulum; hands, feet, forelegs, forelimbs, lower flanks, and tail orange; transverse yellow bars on flanks; ground color of body, brachia, and thighs magenta (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 8 ). Dorsal ground color of head anterior to posterior margin of eyes greenish yellow; occipital region and nape bear a dense, bright-yellow reticulum overlaying thick, black streaks, some of which begin as thin, postorbital stripes; dorsal ground color of trunk and upper limbs immediately proximal to elbow and knee joints blue-gray to magenta; hands, feet, and distal portion of limbs bright-orange; ventral portion of flanks bright-orange bearing short, transverse, yellow bars; tail bright-orange; all ventral surfaces beige, generally immaculate except for faint stippling on throat and gular region. In alcohol, coloration is generally a uniform dark gray dorsally and beige ventrally, except for a slightly darker gular region.

Distribution. Cnemaspis psychedelica is known only from Hon Khoai Island, Ngoc Hien District, Ca Mau Province, Vietnam in Rach Gia Bay 18 km off the southern tip of Point Can Mau ( Grismer et al. 2010b; Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Hon Khoai Island is a small (~ 8 km 2) island reaching approximately 320 m in elevation. It slopes moderately to the sea and lacks some of the precipitous, rocky bluffs characteristic of many of the nearby islands. Hon Khoai maintains a thick vegetative cover and is dominated by primary, semideciduous forest on its slopes and upper elevations with disjunct, mangrove swamps fringing its coastlines. Hon Khoai Island’s granite basement gives rise to scattered, small to massive, boulder outcroppings across its lower elevations that provide the microhabitat for Cnemaspis psychedelica ( Fig. 8 ). The vegetation surrounding the granite outcroppings is usually dense and composed of relatively small trees ( Grismer et al. 2010b, 2011a).

Grismer et al. (2010b) noted that Cnemaspis psychedelica is a relatively large, robust, diurnal, lowland, saxicolous species. Lizards of both sexes and all size classes have been observed abroad on large, granite boulders in the shade of the forest canopy from 0800–1930 hrs. Some lizards were observed basking in filtered sunlight. Lizards would retreat into rock cracks, beneath ledges, or between rocks when threatened. Grismer et al. (2010b) noted it was common to see 2–5 lizards together on the same rock. Lizards showed no preference for any particular plane of orientation, be it vertical, horizontal, or inverted nor did they restrict their activity to only deeply shaded surfaces as do many other species of Cnemaspis ( Chan & Grismer 2008; Das & Grismer 2003; Grismer & Chan 2008, 2009; Grismer & Das 2006; Grismer & Ngo 2007; Grismer et al. 2008a,b; 2009). During the evening hours from 1930 to 2400, lizards are not abundant, likely being displaced by the larger Cyrtodactylus sp. 1 . At night, the coloration of this species is even more brilliant with the trunk becoming magenta ( Fig. 8 ).

Relationships. Cnemaspis psychedelica is the sister species of C. boulengerii ( Fig. 2 ).

Remarks. At the time of this writing (22 December 2013), noted Russian reptile dealers are selling illegally collected individuals of Cnemaspis psychedelica for 3500 euro/pair. Unfortunately, the discovery and description of this unique species on this tiny island may ultimately lead to its extinction owing to the wide-reaching criminal element in Southeast Asia. Owing to recent poaching, this species has been put on the IUCN list of threatened species, which ironically will probably increase their commercial value.

Material examined. Vietnam: Ca Mau Province, Ngoc Hien District, Hon Khoai Island LSUHC 9254–55 , 9257–58 , UNS 0444–49 (type series) . Additional material examined subsequent to Grismer et al. (2010b): Vietnam: Ca Mau Province, Ngoc Hien District, Hon Khoai Island LSUHC 9524–53 , 11007–12 .

Pattani clade

The Pattani clade is a strongly supported (1.0/100), geographically circumscribed lineage composed of four species from southern Thailand and northwestern Peninsular Malaysia sandwiched between the biogeographic boundaries of the Isthmus of Kra in the north and the Kangar-Pattani Line in the south and embedded within the distribution of the Southern Indochina clade ( Fig. 2 ). The basal species of this clade, C. monachorum Grismer, Norhayati, Chan, Belabut, Muin, Wood & Grismer , is an insular endemic known only from the Langkawi Archipelago of Malaysia. The sister lineage to C. monachorum comprises C. biocellata Grismer, Chan, Nurolhuda & Sumontha from the borderlands of Thailand and Malaysia and the sister species C. niyomwanae Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya from southern Thailand and C. kumpoli Taylor from southern Thailand and extreme northwestern Peninsular Malaysia. The well-supported (0.99/93) sister species relationship between C. niyomwanae and C. kumpoli is further supported in that these are the only species of Cnemaspis to have the derived character states of red bands on their forelimbs and dark-red, dorsal blotches in males ( Fig. 5 ). Three of the four species; Cnemaspis monachorum , C. biocellata , and C. niyomwanae , are small, diurnal, obligate karst-dwellers whereas the remaining species, C. kumpoli , is a much larger nocturnal species that inhabits granite boulders.

This clade is diagnosed in having a maximum SVL of 35.1–63.0; 6–11 supralabials; 5–9 infralabials; smooth ventral scales; 1–12 pore-bearing, precloacal scales with round pores; randomly arranged dorsal tubercles; 2–35 paravertebral tubercles; caudal tubercles not encircling the tail; smooth subcaudals bearing a medial row of enlarged scales; 1–3 postcloacal tubercles on either side of the tail base; no enlarged femoral, subtibial or submetatarsal scales; and 24–41 subdigital lamellae.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum-likelihood phylogram (–InL 73957.608688) of the species of the genus Cnemaspis with Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) and maximum-likelihood (ML) bootstrap values, respectively based on the concatenated 3 gene dataset. Black circles are nodes supported by BBP and ML values greater than 0.95 and 70, respectively. Gray circles are nodes supported only by ML values greater than 70. White circles are nodes supported only by BPP values greater than 0.95. The distribution maps on the right delimit the ranges of the four major clades.

FIGURE 3. Distribution of the species and species groups in the Ca Mau and Northern Sunda clades. Stars indicate type localities.

FIGURE 5. Ecological parameters of activity period, elevation (upland species are> 600 m in elevation), substrate preference (microhabitat), and the presence or absence of ocelli (eyespots) mapped onto the molecular phylogeny (Fig. 2) of the species of Cnemaspis. Nodes lacking significant statistical support in Figure 2 are collapsed here. Morphological and color pattern synapomorphies are indicated at the appropriate nodes and considered as additional support of the molecular phylogeny. These character states were polarized following the methodology of Maddison et al. (1984) and were not simply mapped onto the tree. Branch lengths do not represent genetic distance.

FIGURE 8. Cnemaspis psychedelica from Hon Khoai Island, Ca Mau Province, Vietnam. Left: adult male (LSUDPC 5062) in the light color pattern phase. Upper right: adult male (LSUDPC 5070) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower right: granite boulder microhabitat on Hon Khoai Island. Photographs by LLG.