Afroedura granitica, Jacobsen, Niels H. G., Kuhn, Arianna L., Jackman, Todd R. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2014

Jacobsen, Niels H. G., Kuhn, Arianna L., Jackman, Todd R. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2014, A phylogenetic analysis of the southern African gecko genus Afroedura Loveridge (Squamata: Gekkonidae), with the description of nine new species from Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, Zootaxa 3846 (4), pp. 451-501 : 483-484

Afroedura granitica sp. nov.

( Fig. 10 A)

Afroedura langi 'Lillie' Jacobsen 1992a, 1997

Holotype. TM 81187, adult male, Farm Lillie 148KT, 24°04' S, 30°51' E, Letaba district (2430BB), Northern Province, collector R. E. Newbery, 11 November 1985.

Paratypes. TM 81239-81240, 81243–81247, same data as for holotype; TM 81241–81242, same locality as for holotype, collector N. H. G. Jacobsen, 17 May 1980.

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the decomposing granite hills to which this gecko appears restricted.

Diagnosis. A medium to large Afroedura (maximum SVL 58.0 mm) differing from all other congeners by the following combination of characters: two pairs of enlarged subdigital lamellae per digit; tail not obviously verticillate and weakly flattened, with four subcaudal rows and seven supracaudal rows per verticil; dorsal scales smooth, 99–107 scale rows at midbody; internasal scales typically absent, a deep furrow between nasorostrals; 13–16 precloacal pores in males.

Description. (based on holotype TM 81187) Adult male; 55.0 mm SVL; 62.0 mm TailL; mass before preservation 3.0 g. Dorsoventrally depressed; head ovate, distinctly wider than neck. Forelimbs small, hindlimbs robust. Rostral more than twice as wide as high; nostril pierced between rostral, first upper labial and three nasal scales; nasorostrals in broad contact behind rostral, with a deep furrow between them. Scales on snout rounded and juxtaposed, much larger than granules on crown of head; ten scales between nasals and eye and 18 scales between eye and ear; three supraciliary spines; supralabials nine. Mental wedge-shaped, much longer than wide and in contact with a single postmental. Infralabials seven.

Dorsal granules uniform, smooth, rounded and juxtaposed. Midbody scales 100. Ventrals lozenge-shaped and imbricate. Digits with two pairs of scansors and four enlarged inferomedian scales under the 4th toe. Fifteen continuous precloacal pores arranged in a curved row. Tail flattened proximally and thickening about one verticil length posterior to the cloaca. Tail inconspicuously verticillate and tapering, with caudal scales in seven dorsal and four ventral rows per verticil; supracaudals subimbricate, squarish to rectangular, with a rounded posterior margin; subcaudals large, squarish to hexagonal with rounded posterior margins, subimbricate. Two postcloacal spurs at base of tail.

Color. The crown of the head is pale brown with dark brown spots and stripes that are also found on the snout. A dark brown stripe extends from the nostril through the eye, and above the ear to communicate with the occipital bar. Pale gray-brown to brown dorsally with six wavy dark brown irregular crossbars between occiput and sacrum. Crossbars are edged with black posteriorly and in their posterior indentations have white or whitish spots, particularly along the vertebral column. Variable pale and dark spots and blotches present between crossbars. The limbs have a variable dark brown reticulate pattern. Original tails with at least 10 dark brown to blackish crossbands with half bands and speckling in the intervening areas. Venter white, subcaudals speckled.

Variation. Paratypes and other specimens agree with the holotype in most features of scalation ( Table 4). Paratypes TM 81244 and TM 81246 with nasorostrals separated by a single granular scale. Scales between nasals and eye 10–12, from eye to ear 18–22. Postmentals 1–2. Supralabials 7–10. Midbody scale rows 99–107. No enlarged inferomedian scales under the fourth toe in TM 81243. Precloacal pores in male paratypes 13–16, females lacking pores but female paratype TM 81243 with a row of elongate scales in precloacal position. Postcloacal spurs 1–2, absent in some females. Original tails 53.18–58.3% of total length. Degree of distinctness of tail whorls variable; faint, but clearly evident in some specimens. Tail has been autotomized in only 20% of the specimens examined.

Distribution. Restricted to granite hills and outcrops in the eastern Lowveld near Mica, Limpopo Province ( Fig. 6 ).

Natural history. Apparently restricted to decomposing granite outcrops and hillsides on the farm Lillie 148KT in veld type SVl 3 Granite Lowveld ( Mucina & Rutherford 2006) at elevations of 600–800 m a.s.l. These geckos inhabit crevices formed by exfoliating sheets on the underside of boulders, as well as crevices between rocks. They are occasionally found occupying the same retreats as large flat rock scorpions ( Hadogenes troglodytes ). The very similar A. langi occurs on small schistose outcrops.

Remarks. Afroedura granitica sp. nov. shares a suite of characters with A. langi and four other species described herein as new. The affinities of all but one of these, A. leoloensis sp. nov. have been confirmed by our molecular phylogeny ( Fig. 1 ). In comparison with other members of this group A. granitica sp. nov. (maximum SVL 58 mm) is substantially larger than A. langi and A. waterbergensis sp. nov. (both reaching only 46 mm) and A. leoloensis sp. nov. (40.5 mm maximum SVL). In comparison with the last of these species it also has far fewer precloacal pores (13–16 versus typically 31–35), whereas compared to A. waterbergensis sp. nov. (4–7 pores) and A. broadleyi sp. nov. (8–12 pores) it has more. In addition, in comparison with the superficially similar A. langi , the nasorostrals of A. granitica sp. nov. form a deep furrow between them (versus weakly raised nasorostrals forming a shallow furrow). Afroedura granitica sp. nov. is most similar in the basic diagnostic features used herein to A. pienaari sp. nov., to which it is rather distantly related. It may be distinguished by its larger size (58 versus 53 mm maximum SVL and even greater mean differences; Table 4), lower number of male precloacal pores (mean ~14 versus ~16), and higher number of eye to ear scales (mean of 19.10 versus 16.20), although there is overlap in all characters.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood phylogram of Afroedura relationships derived from two genes (ND 2, RAG 1). Support values are presented as maximum likelihood bootstraps (MLBS) / Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) / parsimony bootstraps (PBS). Only most closely related outgroup taxa are shown. Images (top to bottom) of representative Afroedura species groups: A. hawequensis, A. pondolia, A. karroica, A. loveridgei, A. haackei, A. marleyi, A. granitica sp. nov.

FIGURE 6. Map of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, South Africa and adjacent regions showing the distributions of previously described species of Afroedura endemic to this region and known localities of the nine new species described in this paper. For previously recognized forms an approximate outline of the range based on Bates et al. (2014) is shown; genetically sampled localities are marked by circles in Figure 4. For new species all known localities are plotted as dots (see relevant species accounts), with genetically sampled site marked by circles with a a red center, type locality marked by a star, and all other localities indicated by open circles colored to correspond to the key in the figure. The very restricted distributions of A. maripi sp. nov., A. rondavelica sp. nov., and A. rupestris sp. nov. are indicated by arrows and are labeled directly on the map.

FIGURE 10. New species in the Afroedura langi group. (A) Afroedura granitica sp. nov. from Farm Lillie, Limpopo Province, South Africa (24 ° 04 ’ S, 30 ° 51 ’ E) (Photo Stuart V. Nielsen). (B) Afroedura leoloensis sp. nov. from Farm Maandagshoek, Limpopo Province, South Africa (Photo N. H. G. Jacobsen). (C) Afroedura broadleyi sp. nov. from 22 ° 58 ’ 40 ” S, 29 ° 19 ’ 57 ” E, Limpopo Province, South Africa (Photo Marius Burger).