Afroedura leoloensis, 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 : 486-487

Afroedura leoloensis sp. nov.

( Fig. 10 B)

Afroedura pondolia langi (part) Visser 1984a (fig. p. 61) Afroedura langi 'Leolo' Jacobsen 1992a, 1997

Holotype. TM 81113, adult male, Farm Hendriksplaats 281KT, 24°38' S, 30°08' E, Lydenburg District, (2430CA) Mpumalanga Province, Republic of South Africa, collectors R. E. Newbery and W. Petersen, 15 November 1985.

Paratypes. TM 81115, TM 81125, 81127, same data as for holotype; TM 81119, 81124, Farm Maandagshoek 254KT, Sekhukhuneland District, Limpopo Province (2430CA) collector N. H. G. Jacobsen, 25 October 1980; TM 81112, 81116–81118, same locality as TM 81119, collector R.E.Newbery, 29 June 1982; TM 81126, Farm Kalkfontein 367KT, Lydenburg District, Mpumalanga Provicne (2430CC), collector N. H. G. Jacobsen, 23 April 1981; TM 81114, 81121, 81123, 81128, same locality as TM 81126, collectors R. E. Newbery and W. Petersen, 16 November 1985; TM 81122, Kgoloko lokasie, Sekhukhuneland District, Limpopo Province (2429DB), collector R. E. Newbery, 27 October 1980; TM 81120, Farm De Grooteboom 373KT, Lydenburg District, Mpumalanga Province (2430CC), collector N. H. G. Jacobsen, 23 October 1981.

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the Leolo hills in Sekhukhuneland, Limpopo Province, where it was first discovered.

Diagnosis. A small Afroedura (maximum SVL 40.5 mm) differing from all other congeners by the following combination of characters: two pairs of enlarged subdigital lamellae per digit; tail faintly verticillate and flattened near base, with four subcaudal rows and 6–7 supracaudal rows per verticil; dorsal scales smooth, 87–95 scale rows at midbody; internasal scales typically absent; 31–35 precloacal pores in males.

Description. (based on holotype TM 81113) Adult male; 37.0 mm SVL; 45.0 mm TailL; mass before preservation 0.9 g. Body small and slender, dorsoventrally depressed; head oval, wider than the neck. Rostral approximately 2.5 times wider than high; nostril pierced between rostral, first upper labial and three nasal scales; nasorostrals in moderate contact behind rostral. Scales on snout hexagonal, flattened and much larger than scales on crown of head; nine scales between nasals and eye and 16 scales between eye and ear. Four supraciliary spines. Supralabials 10. Mental wedge-shaped, much longer than wide and in contact with two postmentals. Infralabials eight.

Dorsal scales minute, more-or-less homogeneous, smooth, juxtaposed to subimbricate, rounded to slightly hexagonal. Midbody scales 89. Ventrals large, smooth and imbricate. Digits with two pairs of enlarged scansors and six enlarged inferomedian scales under the fourth toe. Precloacal pores in a continuous, almost straight row of 34. Tail broad and flattened near the base, tapering to a fine tip, faintly verticillate; caudal scales arranged in six dorsal and four ventral rows per verticil. Supracaudals subimbricate, almost rectangular; subcaudals as broad as long and imbricate. Two postcloacal spurs on either side of tail base.

Color. Pale brown to brown dorsally with 7–8 dark brown irregular crossbands extending from the occiput to sacrum. Crossbands with darker posterior margins and, in most specimens, a white vertebral spot just posterior to each crossband. Limbs longitudinally striped or banded. The paler areas between the stripes are spotted dark brown. Crown of head pale brown with darker spotting and other variegations. Tail with 10 blackish crossbands from base to tip. Venter pinkish; tail brownish with darker markings.

Variation. Paratypes and other specimens agree with the holotype in most features of scalation ( Table 4). Nasorostrals in broad contact behind rostral but separated posteriorly by a single granule in TM 81120. Scales between nasals and eye 9–12, from eye to ear 16–18. Five supraciliary spines in TM 81115. Mental as long as broad in some specimens; postmentals three in TM 811141. Supralabials 8–10. Infralabials 6–10. Midbody scale rows 87–95. 0–8 enlarged inferomedian scales under fourth toe. Precloacal pores in male paratypes 31–35 (except for TM 81126, which has only 11), females lacking pores. Original tails 50.00–55.9% of total length. Supracaudal scales in 6 or 7 rows per tail whorl. Tail has been autotomized in 54.5% of the specimens examined (n=17).

Distribution. Endemic to the Leolo Hills and outcrops above the Steelpoort River on either side of the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces ( Fig. 6 ).

Natural history. Exclusively rupicolous, apparently limited to norite and granitic formations. Afroedura leoloensis sp. nov. lives in narrow crevices under exfoliating rock. These are usually on the underside of boulders with the openings facing downwards, protecting them from rain. The species is found in Sekhukhune Mountain Bushveld (SVcb 28) and Leolo Summit Sourveld (GM 20) ( Mucina & Rutherford 2006) at an elevation of 1200–1800 m a.s.l.

Two eggs are laid at a time and measure 8.9–9.0 x 6.1–6.4 mm with a mass of 0.2 g. The eggs appear to be laid in midsummer and are initially soft-shelled, adhering to the rock and then hardening.

Remarks. Afroedura leoloensis sp. nov. is a member of the A. langi clade ( Figs. 1–2 ; see Remarks under A. granitica sp. nov.). This species exhibits the highest number of precloacal pores (31–35) not only in its clade, but in the genus as a whole, and may thus be distinguished from its congeners.

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 2. Results of the 12 - gene concatenated phylogenetic analysis and 10 individual nuclear gene trees. The tree shows the topology as estimated in the two-gene (ND 2, RAG 1) concatenated analysis. Outgroup taxa (not shown) include Chondrodactylus, Pachydactylus, Rhoptropus, and Goggia. The tree has been pruned from the full dataset (72 ingroup taxa) to indicate species-level relationships only (22 ingroup taxa). Solid circles indicate> 90 MLBS / 1.0 BPP for the 12 - gene concatenated analysis at the node, and open circles indicate 70 – 90 MLBS / 9.0 – 9.9 BPP. Each individual nuclear gene not used in the two-gene concatenated analyses that was able to recover the same species relationship as in the two-gene analysis (Fig. 1) is listed on a node-by-node basis. Bold italic black names indicate> 70 MLBS for that particular gene, and gray names in normal font indicate <70 MLBS.

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).