Cnemaspis hangus, Grismer & Wood & Anuar & Riyanto & Ahmad & Muin & Sumontha & Grismer & Onn & Quah & Pauwels, 2014

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 : 86-90

Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov.

Bukit Hangus Rock Gecko

Fig. 46

Holotype. Adult male (HC 00227) collected on 24 June 2008 by Chan Kin Onn at 1030 hrs from Bukit Hangus, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia (04°16.142’N, 102°13.370’E) at 10 m in elevation.

Paratypes. Adult female (HC 00225) has the same collection data as the holotype.

Diagnosis. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. differs from all other Southeast Asia species of Cnemaspis in having the unique combination of adult males reaching 50.5 mm SVL, adult females reaching 47.0 mm SVL; nine supralabials; eight infralabials; ventrals keeled; no precloacal pores; moderately prominent dorsal tubercles; 22–24 paravertebral tubercles; dorsal body tubercles semi-randomly arranged; tuberculation weak on flanks; caudal tubercles not encircling tail; tubercles may be within lateral caudal furrows anteriorly only; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; ventrolateral caudal tubercles absent; subcaudals keeled; no enlarged, median subcaudal scale row; two postcloacal tubercles; no enlarged femoral, subtibial, or submetatarsal scales; subtibials keeled; and 27–34 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe (Tables 6,7). Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. lacks the diagnostic color pattern characteristics of other species in the Peninsular clade.

Description of holotype. Adult male; SVL 50.5 mm; head oblong in dorsal profile, moderate in size (HL/SVL 0.25), somewhat narrow (HW/SVL 0.17), flattened (HD/HL 0.42), distinct from neck; snout short (ES/HL 0.48), slightly concave in lateral profile; postnasal region constricted medially, flat; scales of rostrum weakly keeled, slightly raised, same size as similarly shaped scales on occiput; low, supraorbital ridges; moderate frontorostral sulcus; canthus rostralis smoothly rounded; eye large (ED/HL 0.22); extra-brillar fringe scales largest anteriorly; pupil round; ear opening oval, taller than wide; rostral slightly concave, dorsal 75% divided by longitudinal groove; rostral bordered posteriorly by supranasals and one small, azygous scale and laterally by first supralabials; 9R,L raised supralabials of similar size; 8R,L infralabials, decreasing in size slightly posteriorly; nostrils elliptical, oriented dorsoposteriorly; bordered posteriorly by small, granular, postnasal scales; mental large, triangular, bordered posteriorly by six small postmentals of similar size; gular scales raised, weakly keeled; throat scales larger, raised, keeled.

Body slender, elongate; small, keeled, dorsal scales equal in size throughout body, intermixed with larger, multicarinate tubercles more or less randomly arranged; tubercles extend from occiput to base of tail; tubercles on flanks sparse, moderate in size; 22 paravertebral tubercles; pectoral and abdominal scales raised, keeled, not elongate, same size throughout; abdominal scales slightly larger than dorsals; no precloacal pores; forelimbs moderately long, slender; dorsal scales of brachium raised, keeled; dorsal scales of forearm keeled, raised; ventral scales of brachium smooth, raised, juxtaposed; ventral scales of forearm weakly raised, juxtaposed; palmar scales smooth, juxtaposed, raised; digits long with an inflected joint; claws recurved; subdigital lamellae unnotched; lamellae beneath first phalanges granular proximally, widened distally; lamellae beneath phalanx immediately following inflection granular, lamellae of distal phalanges wide; interdigital webbing present; fingers increase in length from first to fourth with fourth and fifth nearly equal in length; hind limbs slightly longer and thicker than forelimbs; dorsal scales of thigh keeled, raised, juxtaposed; scales of anterior margin of thigh keeled; ventral scales of thigh weakly keeled; subtibial scales keeled, flat, imbricate, with no enlarged anterior row; plantar scales smooth, juxtaposed, raised; no enlarged submetatarsal scales beneath first metatarsal; digits elongate with an inflected joint; claws recurved; subdigital lamellae unnotched; lamellae beneath first phalanges granular proximally but wider distally; lamellae beneath phalanx immediately following inflection granular, lamellae of distal phalanges wide; interdigital webbing present; toes increase in length from first to fourth with fourth being slightly longer than fifth; 34 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; caudal scales arranged in segmented whorls; caudal scales flat anteriorly, weakly keeled, juxtaposed; deep middorsal and lateral furrows; no enlarged, median subcaudal scales; subcaudal scales keeled; no median row of enlarged keeled subcaudal scales; caudal tubercles do not encircle tail; caudal tubercles may or may not be present in lateral furrow anteriorly; one enlarged postcloacal tubercle on lateral surface of hemipenal swellings at base of tail.

Color pattern in life ( Fig. 46 ). Dorsal ground color dark, ashy grey; head and body overlain with irregularly shaped, indistinct darker blotchs; light yellowish, medial blotch on occiput following three smaller dark spots; rostrum bearing yellowish spots; single, faded, dark, postorbital stripe extending to base of occiput; paravertebral, faded yellowish markings on extending to base of tail alternating with faded irregularly shapred, smaller, dark markings; transversely elongate, yellowish markings on flanks alternating with darker spots; tail regenerated, unicolor gray; irregularly shaped, small, dark and light markings on limbs; dark and light diffuse bands encircling digits; ventral surfaces dark grey. There is no sexual dimorphism in color pattern and the pattern lightens considerably at night.

Variation. The paratype (HC 0225) approaches the holotype in coloration and pattern except that its dorsal pattern is bolder, its ventral surfaces are slightly lighter, and most of its tail is original and bears a faded banding pattern. Morphometric variation and variation in scalation are presented in Table 10 .

Distribution. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. is known only from Bukit Hangus, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia ( Fig. 3 ).

Natural History. Lizards were seen abroad during the day on karst boulders and walls within a lowland dipterocarp forest and on boulders near the entrances of cave openings ( Fig. 46 ). All were wary and quick to take cover in crevices and on the backsides of boulders at the slightest provocation. Multiple lizards were observed to occupy the same boulder and no lizards were seen at night indicating that C. hangus sp. nov. is diurnal. HC 0225 was a gravid female carrying two eggs indicating that reproduction takes place in June.

Etymology. The specific epithet hangus is an invariable noun in apposition in reference to the Malay word “ hangus ” which means to burn or scorch and refers to this species’ overall burnt appearance in the dark color pattern phase.

Comparisons. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. is a member of the affinis group within which it is the sister species to C. selamatkanmerapoh . Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. differs from C. selamatkanmerapoh in having a larger maximum larger SVL (50.5 mm versus 43.4 mm); lacking precloacal pores as opposed to having pores; having fewer paravertebral tubercles (22–24 versus 30); and semi-randomly arranged versus linearly arranged, dorsal tubercles. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. and C. selamatkanmerapoh bear a 3.6% sequence divergence from one another as well ( Table 4 ). It differs from C. pseudomcguirei , C. harimau , and C. shahruli by having a greater maximum SVL (50.5 mm versus 36.5–43.2) and being considerably smaller than C. mcguirei (maximum SVL 65.0 mm). It differs from all species of the affinis group except C. shahruli in lacking as opposed to having precloacal pores. From C. mcguirei , C. grismeri and C. narathiwatensis in having fewer paravertebral tubercles (22–24 versus 23–34) and from C. harimau and C. shahruli in have more precloacal pores (11–23). It can be further separated from all species of the affinis group except C. affinis , C. bayuensis and C. selamatkanmerapoh by lacking tubercles in the lateral caudal furrows. From C. grismeri and C. narathiwatensis it differs in lacking as opposed to having a row of ventrolateral caudal tubercles. Having 27–34 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe separates if from C. pseudomcguirei , C. flavolineata and C. temiah sp. nov. (23–26).

Relationships. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. is the sister species of C. selamatkanmerapoh ( Fig. 2 ).

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 46. Cnemaspis hangus sp. nov. from Bukit Hangus, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. Upper left: adult male holotype (HC 0227) in the light color pattern phase. Lower left: ventral view of adult female (HC 0225) showing same coloration as adult males. Right: karst microhabitat at Bukit Hangus. Photographs by CKO.