Cyrtodactylus himalayicus ( Annandale, 1906 ) Agarwal & Mahony & Giri & Chaitanya & Bauer, 2018

Agarwal, Ishan, Mahony, Stephen, Giri, Varad B., Chaitanya, R. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2018, Two new species of bent toed geckos, Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Northeast India with comments on name-bearing types from the region, Zootaxa 4420 (3), pp. 334-356 : 339-342

Cyrtodactylus himalayicus ( Annandale, 1906) comb. nov.

Fig. 2E and F

Gymnodactylus himalayicus Annandale, 1906: 287 ; 1907: pl. 5, fig. 1.

Holotype [by monotypy]. ZSIK 15716 , male, from “ Kurseong , Darjeeling dist. (5,000 ft)” [= Kurseong subdivision (ca. 1524 m asl.), Darjeeling district, West Bengal state, India], collected by N. Annandale, ca. 1906 ( Annandale 1906).

Additional material. ZSIK 19546, adult female, from “Gopaldhara, Darjeling dist.” ( Smith 1935; Ahmed & Dasgupta 1992) [=Gopaldhara Tea Estate, near Mirik town, Darjeeling district, West Bengal state, India], collected by H. Stevens, 24 April 1946.

Diagnosis and comparisons with regional congeners. A small sized Cyrtodactylus , snout-vent length to 64.5 mm; body relatively slender; limbs and digits moderately long; two or three pairs of well-developed postmentals, inner pair longer than outer two and in broad contact behind mental; 19–21 rows of smooth weakly raised to

bluntly conical, rounded dorsal tubercles; 33 or 34 [ 35 count in Annandale 1906] ventral scales between outermost ventral scale rows enlarged relative to granular flank scales; ventrolateral folds absent; no precloacal groove; 10 precloacal pores in a single series on the male and an equivalent 10 fine pores/ pitted scales on the female, femoral pores absent on both sexes; scales bordering precloacal pore row are approximately 3x enlarged relative to porebearing scales. Nine basal subdigital lamellae and 11 distal lamellae on Digit IV of pes [n=1: toe tips broken off on ZSIK 15716]. Subcaudal scalation of original tail without single median series of enlarged plates, though subcaudals are moderately enlarged relative to dorsal caudal scales. Dorsal pattern of approximately eight paired transversely arranged small dark spots on trunk and sacrum of male, or female with four almost continuous longitudinal brown stripes on trunk. Original tail with approximately 13 dark bands.

Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. differs from the following species in the presence of only precloacal pores on males (vs. PcP + femoral pores): C. annandalei Bauer , C. fasciolatum , C. gubernatoris , C. russelli and C. slowinskii . Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. differs from the following species by possessing 10 precloacal pores: C. brevidactylus Bauer (8 PcP), C. cayuensis (6–9 PcP), C. mandalayensis (8 PcP + single enlarged porebearing scale posterior to the series), C. markuscombaii (7 PcP), C. martinstolli (0–8 PcP); and from the following species by possessing precloacal pores only (vs. precloacofemoral pores): C. gansi (16–29 PcFP), and C. tamaiensis (40 PcFP). Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. differs from the following species by having 19–21 dorsal tubercle rows: C. brevidactylus (27 DTR), C. mandalayensis (18 DTR), C. markuscombaii (14–15 DTR), and C. wakeorum Bauer (24 DTR). Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. lacks a ventrolateral fold, which distinguishes it from C. ayeyarwadyensis , C. cayuensis , C. mandalayensis and C. martinstolli . Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. differs from C. khasiensis by having enlarged plate-like scales posteriorly bordering the pore-bearing scale series (equivalent scales not enlarged on C. khasiensis ), and snout to vent length to 64.5 mm (to 83.3 mm for C. khasiensis ). Refer to the diagnosis section of new taxa for comparisons with Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov.

Notes. Smith (1935) examined available specimens of C. “ khasiensis ” in the collections of ZSIK and BMNH, to which he referred a specimen from “Mogok, Upper Burma ” (BMNH 1900.9.20.1), which has eight precloacal pores. Having examined the holotype and referred specimen (ZSIK 19546) of Gymnodactylus himalayicus, Smith (1935) noted that this taxon had 10 preanal pores, which fell within the morphological range of his redefined C. khasiensis . As a result, Smith (1935) referred G. himalayicus to the synonymy of C. khasiensis . Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. is still known from only two poorly preserved specimens and all pertinent taxonomic characters could not be collected from these. Our recent examination of these specimens demonstrate that this taxon is sufficiently distinct from C. khasiensis , as well as all other species in the region, and is herein raised to the status of a valid species.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Dorsal and ventral view of Cyrtodactylus khasiensis (female lectotype BMNH 1906.8.10.4) (A–B), C. gubernatoris (male holotype ZSIK 17275) (C–D) and Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. (male holotype ZSIK 15716) (E– F). Scale bars 10 mm.