Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi, Narayanan & Pal & Grismer & Aravind, 2023
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publication ID |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/vz.73.e101311 |
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publication LSID |
lsid:zoobank.org:pub:24FBC422-A653-428C-B86B-5869014E5632 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/58ECC89A-D8D5-5DDA-A1F6-634FCE754264 |
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treatment provided by |
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scientific name |
Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi |
| status |
sp. nov. |
Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov.
Figs 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 5 View Figure 5 , 6 View Figure 6
Suggested common name.
Ganeshaiah’s dwarf gecko.
Type locality.
Keeranhola Village, Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary, Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka, India (12.045478°N, 77.599490°E, 945 m asl).
Holotype.
BNHS 3146, SVL 29.1 mm, adult male collected by Aravind N.A. and Surya Narayanan on 14th December 2021 (Figs 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 6A View Figure 6 ).
Paratypes.
BNHS 3147, SVL 31.9 mm, adult male (Fig. 5A View Figure 5 ); BNHS 3148, SVL 29.4 mm, adult male (Fig. 5B View Figure 5 ), collection details same as holotype; BNHS 3149, SVL 30.6 mm, adult female (Fig. 5C View Figure 5 ) collected from the granite walls within human settlements, collections details same as holotype. BNHS 3150, SVL 32.2 mm, adult male; BNHS 3151, SVL 32.4 mm, adult male; BNHS 3152, SVL 32.8 mm, adult female; BNHS 3153, SVL 36.2 mm, juvenile female collected from rock boulders from near the type locality.
Etymology.
The specific epithet of this new species is a patronym in honour of Professor K.N. Ganeshaiah, who served as a Professor of Plant Genetics and Breeding at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, and was a founding trustee of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. Professor Ganeshaiah has contributed significantly towards plant breeding, ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation biology. He also popularised science literature in the local language and wrote over 25 books.
Diagnosis.
A small-sized Cnemaspis , SVL up to 32.8 mm (n = 8). Dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous; weakly keeled granular scales intermixed with fairly regularly arranged rows of enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles; last one or two rows of enlarged tubercles on flank keeled, spine-like; 12-14 rows of dorsal tubercles at mid-body, 14-18 tubercles in paravertebral rows, paravertebral rows rarely irregularly arranged; ventral scales smooth, subcircular, subimbricate, subequal from chest to vent, 24-28 scales across belly at mid-body, 118-124 longitudinal scales from mental to cloaca; subdigital scansors smooth, unpaired, unnotched; nine or 10 lamellae under digit I of manus and pes, 15-18 lamellae under digit IV of manus and 17-21 lamellae under digit IV of pes; males (n = 5/8) with five femoral pores on each thigh separated by seven or eight poreless scales from series of four to six precloacal pores, precloacal pores separated medially by one or two poreless scales, (precloacal pores rarely not separated, n = 1/5); tail with enlarged, strongly keeled, pointed, and spine-like tubercles forming whorls; median row of subcaudals smooth, roughly pentagonal, and distinctly enlarged. Dorsum pale-orange, mottled with small white to light-grey spots and few small black spots with a series of light-grey vertebral blotches extending from neck to tail base; a single central black dorsal ocellus on neck and a smaller one on occiput separated by a light-grey blotch, ocellus on neck flanked anteriorly on each side by a subequal ocellus and posteriorly by a pair of obscure blotches; venter off-white with black speckles, two distinct pairs of black streaks on throat; original tail in males pale-grey, regenerated tail orange-brown.
Comparison among the members of the Cnemaspis gracilis clade.
Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. is morphologically placed in the Cnemaspis gracilis clade based on a combination of characteristics like dorsal pholidosis heterogenous (vs. homogeneous in littoralis, indica and wynadensis clades); presence of precloacal pores (vs. littoralis, giri, indica and wynadensis clades); presence of femoral pores (vs. absent in beddomei clade); presence of spine-like tubercles on the flank (vs. absent in bangara, beddomei, girii and mysorensis clades); the presence of strong sexual dichromatism (vs. absent or if present, sparse in Cnemaspis monticola and Cnemaspis goaensis clades).
From the members of the Cnemaspis gracilis clade, Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. can be easily distinguished by a combination following characteristics: spine-like tubercles present in the flanks (vs. absent in Cnemaspis thackerayi Khandekar et al., 2019, C. jackieii Pal et al., 2021, C. agarwali and C. shevaroyensis Khandekar et al., 2019); four to six PP medially separated by one scale (n = 2/5) and five FP separated by seven or eight poreless scales (vs. one or two PP medially separated by two or three scales and four FP separated by seven to nine poreless scales in C. shevaroyensis ; two to four PP medially separated by one or two scales and five to nine FP separated by one to six poreless scales in C. thackerayi ; three or four PP medially separated by one of two scales and five or six FP separated by one or two poreless scales in C. jackieii Pal et al., 2021; two PP medially separated by two to four scale and three to five FP separated by nine to eleven poreless scales in C. mundanthuraiensis Khandekar et al., 2022; two PP medially separated by two scales and three to five FP separated by five to seven poreless scales in C. salimalii Agarwal et al., 2022; two PP medially separated by one or two scales and four or five FP separated by eight to 10 poreless scales in C. agayagangai Agarwal et al., 2022; two PP medially separated by two scales and three to five FP in C. gracilis (Beddome, 1870); two to four PP medially separated by one or two scales and four or five FP separated by seven to nine poreless scales in C. fantastica Agarwal et al., 2022; two to five PP and four to seven FP separated by seven to 11 poreless scales in C. pachaimalaiensis Agarwal et al., 2022); by the presence of higher numbers of DTR 13 or 14 (vs. 9-11 in C. agarwali ) and slightly higher numbers of ventral scales 114-124 (vs. 102-117 in C. agarwali ). Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. is morphologically much similar to and overlaps with C. rudhira from which it can be differentiated by having fewer 24-28 ventral scales (vs. 30-32) and in having two pairs of ocelli anterior and posterior to the ocellus in the neck versus the anterior and posterior pairs of ocelli being absent.
Description of the holotype.
Adult male in good state of preservation except for tail tip slightly missing. SVL 29.1 mm, head short (HL/SVL 0.29), wide (HW/HL 0.55), not strongly depressed (HD/HL 0.41), distinct from neck. Loreal region marginally inflated, canthus rostralis not distinct. Snout slightly less than half of head length (ES/HL 0.45), slightly more than 2.5 times eyeball diameter (ES/ED 2.9); scales on snout and canthus rostralis subcircular, subequal, and weakly keeled; much larger than those on forehead and interorbital region; scales on forehead similar to those on snout and canthus rostralis except smaller, elongate, and weakly conical; scales in interorbital region even smaller, granular, and weakly keeled; scales on occipital and temporal region heterogeneous with slightly enlarged, weakly keeled, conical tubercles intermixed with smaller, weakly keeled and weakly conical granular scales. Eyeball small (ED/HL 0.14) with round pupil; supraciliaries short, larger anteriorly; 23 or 24 scale rows between left and right supraciliaries at mid-orbit. Ear-opening deep, oval, small (EL/HL 0.04); eyeball to ear distance greater than diameter of eyeball (EE/ED 2.0). Rostral more than two times wider (1.4 mm) than high (0.65 mm), incompletely divided dorsally by a strongly developed rostral groove; a single enlarged supranasal on each side, much larger than postnasals, partly in contact with each other; anteriorly divided by a small internasal scale; two postnasals, upper postnasal marginally larger than lower; rostral in contact with first supralabial, nostril, internasal, supranasal, and lower postnasal on either side; nostrils oval, surrounded by two postnasals, supranasal, and rostral on either side; two rows of scales separate orbit from supralabials. Mental enlarged, subtriangular, slightly wider (1.52 mm) than high (1.17 mm); two pairs of postmentals, inner pair roughly rectangular, right one visually larger than the left one, both much shorter than mental, in strong contact with each other posterior to mental; inner pair bordered by mental, first infralabial, outer postmental, enlarged median chin shield on either side, and an enlarged chin shield on left side; outer postmentals roughly rectangular, smaller than inner pair, bordered by inner postmentals, first and second infralabials, and three enlarged chin shields on left side, four enlarged chin shield on right side, and median chin shield on left side; three enlarged gular scales between left and right outer postmentals; all chin scales bordering postmentals flat, subcircular, smooth, and smaller than outermost postmentals; scales on rest of throat, smaller, flattened, subequal, and smooth. Infralabials bordered posteriroly by a row or two of slightly enlarged, greatly elongate scales, decreasing in size posteriorly. Nine supralabials up to the angle of the jaw on each side, and seven at the midorbital position on each side; first supralabial largest, supralabials gradually decrease in size posteriorly; eight infralabials up to angle of jaw on each side, five at midorbital position on either side; first infralabial largest, infralabials gradually decrease in size posteriorly.
Body relatively slender (BW/AGL 0.47), trunk less than one-half SVL (AGL/SVL 0.38) lacking ventrolateral folds; spine-like scales on flank present. Dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous; weakly keeled granular scales intermixed with a fairly regularly arranged row of enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles; tubercles in approximately 13 longitudinal rows at mid-body including spine-like scales on lower flank; 18 (left) and 16 (right) tubercles in paravertebral row from forelimb insertion to hind limb insertion. Ventral scales much larger than granular scales on dorsum smooth, subcircular, subimbricate, subequal to pectoral and ventral scales; mid-body scale rows across belly 24; 124 scales from mental to anterior border of cloaca. Scales on base of neck similar to those on belly, marginally smaller; gular region with still smaller, subequal, smooth, flattened scales, those bordering postmentals enlarged, smooth, subcircular, and flattened. Five femoral pores on either thigh, six continuous precloacal pores and six (on right) and seven (on left) poreless scales on either side between prcloacal and femoral pores.
Scales on palm and soles granular, smooth, subcircular, subimbricate and flattened; scales on dorsal aspects of limbs heterogeneous; mixture of small granular, weakly keeled, imbricate scales twice the size of granules on dorsum, largest on anterolateral aspect of the hands and feet; posterolateral aspect of limbs with small weakly keeled to smooth granular scales; scales on lower arm and shank small, subimbricate, and keeled; ventral aspect of forelimbs with small, smooth, subimbricate scales; ventral aspect of hind limb with enlarged, smooth, flattened, subimbricate scales, slightly larger than ventrals. Forelimbs and hind limbs moderately long, slender (LAL/SVL 0.16; CL/SVL 0.18); digits long, with strong, recurved claw, distinctly inflected, portions distal to the inflections laterally conspicuously compressed. Subdigital lamellae unpaired except basal lamella or two pairs on some digits, separated into a basal and narrower distal series by single enlarged lamella at inflection; basal lamellae series: (1-4-4-5-4 right manus, 1-4-6-7-5 right pes), (1-4-4-5-3 left manus; 1-5-6-8-6 left pes); distal lamellae series: (9-10-11-11-9 right manus, 8-9-12-13-12 right pes), (9-10-12-11-9 left manus; 8-10-13-14-11 left pes). Relative length of digits (measurements in mm in parentheses): IV (2.7)> III (2.4)> II (2.2)> V (2.1)> I (1.6) (left manus); IV (3.4)> V (3.3)> III (3.1)> II (2.6)> I (1.6) (left pes).
Tail partly original except the posterior end (15 mm) which is regenerated, about 2-3mm dissected for analysis, subcylindrical, slender, slightly longer than snout-vent length (TL/SVL 1.07). Dorsal scales on tail base weakly keeled, granular, similar in size and shape to granular scales on mid-body dorsum, gradually becoming larger, flattened, imbricate posteriorly, intermixed with enlarged, strongly keeled, distinctly pointed, conical tubercles; enlarged tubercles on tail forming whorls; six tubercles each on first five whorls, five in 6th-8th whorls, rest of tail regenerated and lacking tubercles. Subcaudal scales much larger than those on dorsal aspect, subimbricate, smooth; median series distinctly enlarged, roughly rectangular; scales on tail base slightly larger than those on mid-body ventrals, smooth, imbricate; a single enlarged, weakly keeled and conical postcloacal spur on each side.
Colouration in life and preservative.
The dorsal aspect of the body is overall yellowish and orangish, intermixed with numerous grey irregular spots on the body. The well-developed tubercles are greyish, and brighter along the lateral side of the body. Head overall yellowish with irregular brownish patches. The dorsum apart from the greyish tubercles and ocelli, possesses several irregularly shaped orange patches. One roughly rhomboidal ocellus on the occiput, a single thick black ocellus slightly posterior to the neck, paired with two darker anterior ocelli and two faint posterior ocelli. The central ocellus on the neck is much closer to the anterior pair than it is to the posterior ones. The limbs are brownish above with conspicuous irregularly shaped patches; digits are blackish with irregularly shaped yellow spots. The ventral side of the head is whitish in the middle and covered a by yellowish border along the sides starting from the infralabials and extending to the neck where it is prominent, three pairs of parallel black streaks, one starting from below the ocular and other from the posterior of the ocular region extending till the base of the neck and the third and innermost starting below the outer postmentals and extending till the base of the neck where both streaks are connected; body mostly creamish white. The original tail is greyish including the tubercles that form a series of whorls. The regenerated portion is orangish with numerous tiny black speckles. In preservatives, the colour remains the same except for the yellow and orange which turned paler on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces.
Variation in paratypes.
Morphometric and meristic differences are provided in Table 1 View Table 1 and Table 2 View Table 2 . Paratypes range in size SVL from 29.4 mm to 32.8 mm (n = 7). Paratypes BNHS 3147, BNHS 3148, BNHS 3150 and BNHS 3151 are males and BNHS 3149, BNHS 3152 and BNHS 3153 are females. Overall the paratypes resemble the holotype except for the following characters. Tail complete in the paratype BNHS 3147, BNHS 3150, BNHS 3152, BNHS 3151 and incomplete in all other paratypes BNHS 3153, BNHS 3148, and BNHS 3149 h varying degrees in length; BNHS 3149 has a completely regenerated tail. Supranasals are divided by a tiny scale in the holotype and an elongated internasal in the paratypes. All the male paratypes have one (BNHS 3147, BNHS 3148 and BNHS 3151) or two (BNHS 3150) poreless scales between the precloacal pores.
Ecology, natural history and distribution.
Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. is currently known only from the type locality and the nearby vicinity. The habitat is dry deciduous and scrub forests with large granite boulders. They are found in the crevices of walls or in boulders. Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. appears to be a diurnal species and the type series was collected during the day at approximately 11:00 hrs from rocky outcrops amidst human settlements and the farmlands. During our survey, we found C. ganeshaiahi sp. nov. mostly in the rocky outcrops, walls made of granite stones within the forest patches in the valley, and human settlements. A few individuals were found within buildings. Cnemaspis ganeshaiahi sp. nov. seems abundant locally and within these microhabitats, we observed several uncollected individuals during our fieldwork (n = 40). We also found some individuals (n = 5) within the buildings, indicating their tolerance to human presence. At the type locality, Hemidactylus whitakeri Mirza et al., 2018 and H. cf. frenatus are found syntopically with C. ganeshaiahi sp. nov.
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