Cnemaspis narathiwatensis Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya, 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 : 85-86

Cnemaspis narathiwatensis Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya, 2010

Narathiwat Rock Gecko

Fig. 45

Holotype. THNHM 1436 . Type locality “ Waeng District , Narathiwat Province, Thailand. Exact locality, collector, and date of collection unknown”.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 53.2 mm; nine or 10 supralabials; 7–11 infralabials; keeled ventral scales; 3–6 discontinuous, pore-bearing precloacal scales with round pores; 28–34 paravertebral tubercles; body tubercles randomly arranged, present or absent on flanks; tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; ventrolateral row of caudal tubercles present; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; caudal tubercles do not encircle tail; subcaudals keeled; no enlarged, median row of subcaudals; 1–3 postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; submetatarsal scales of first toe not enlarged; subtibials keeled; 24–30 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; white ocellus in shoulder region of males; light-colored vertebral stripe variably present; whitish to yellow bars on flanks; black and white caudal bands posteriorly (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 45 ). Dorsal ground color of head, body, limbs and tail gray to brown; top of head mottled with yellow, bearing two dark, diffuse, postorbital stripes; lower postorbital stripe extending onto upper portion of forelimb; upper postorbital stripe wider, incomplete, extending onto occiput and nearly meeting opposing stripe; shoulder region dark and in males encloses a whitish ocellus composed of large tubercles; a series of light-colored bars on flanks which tend to fade posteriorly; small, dark, paired, paravertebral markings on trunk between forelimb insertion and base of tail alternating with large, round, light-colored paravertebral markings; ventrolateral tubercles on base of tail light-colored; limbs generally uniform light-brown to yellowish bearing small, randomly arranged, diffuse markings; ventral surfaces uniform beige with fine, dark stippling in each scale; throat darker; infralabials and mental light-yellow; subcaudal region bearing whitish rings.

Distribution. Cnemaspis narathiwatensis is known only from the Thai-Malaysian border region from Hala-Bala of the district of Waeng in Narathiwat Province and from Bang Lang National Park and Bannang Sata District, Yala Province, Thailand and the Belum-Temengor region of Perak in northern Peninsular Malaysia ( Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Grismer et al (2010a) noted that lizards from Thailand were observed at night sheltering in rocky crevices between 200–500 m in elevation and suggested this may indicate this species is a diurnal, rocky, microhabitat specialist ( Fig. 45 ). This was confirmed with findings of C. narathiwatensis in Belum-Temengor region of Peninsular Malaysia where lizards were found on granite boulders near a stream during the day but were not seen at night.

Relationships. Cnemaspis narathiwatensis may be the sister species of C. shahruli ( Fig. 2 ) also this relation is not statistically supported.

Material examined. Thailand: Narathiwat Province, Waeng District THNHM 1338 , 1436 ; Yala Province, Bannang Sata District, Bang Lang National Park THNHM 12435 . These specimens represent the type series. Material examined since Grismer et al. (2010a): Malaysia: Perak, Belum-Temengor region LSUHC 11271–74 .

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 45. Cnemaspis narathiwatensis from Sungai Enam, Belum, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Upper left: ventral view of an adult male and female (LSUDPC 7940). Upper right: adult female (LSUDPC 7009) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower right: adult male (LSUDPC 7011) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower left: granite boulder microhabitat at Sungai Enam. Photographs by ESHQ.