Cnemaspis huaseesom 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 : 51-52

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

Yellow-headed Rock Gecko

Figs. 23 , 24

Holotype. THNHM 15909 . Type locality: “ Sai Yok National Park , Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand (14°20.09N, 98°51.35E)” at 125 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 43.5 mm; 7–10 supralabials; 6–9 infralabials; smooth ventral scales; 5–8 contiguous, pore-bearing, precloacal scales with round pores; 18–24 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles on flanks; tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles; lateral caudal tubercle row absent; subcaudals smooth, with no enlarged or weakly keeled median scale row; one or two postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; subtibials smooth; no enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 21–31 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; head, forelimbs, tail, gular region, throat, pectoral region, underside of forelimbs, and subcaudal region yellow in males (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern (Figs. 23,24). Males: Cnemaspis huaseesom are capable of considerable change in coloration from a light to darker phase. The description that follows is of the darker phase: dorsal ground color of head, forelimbs and tail yellow, with faint banding on tail; dorsal ground color of trunk and hind limbs dark-gray and bearing large, light-gray, paravertebral spots extending from occiput to base of tail; dorsal surface of hind limbs bearing large, light-gray spots; dorsal surface of forelimbs bearing small, yellow markings; top of head mottled; dark postorbital stripes faint; large, round, whitish markings on nape; trunk uniformly gray; tubercles on body lightly colored; belly pale gray; ventral surface of hind limbs gray; fine, dark stippling on all ventral surfaces, most dense on belly. Some adult males may have a gray, as opposed to yellow tail. Females: lack yellow head, forelimbs, and tail, have same general trunk color as males in dark phase; overall ground color of head, body, limbs, and tail light brown; large, lighter, paravertebral markings extend from nape to base of tail where they continue posteriorly to form lightly colored, caudal bands; flanks densely stippled with cream-colored markings and bear faint, gray bars; limbs mottled; all ventral surfaces beige with faint stippling that is most dense on belly and tail.

Distribution. Cnemaspis huaseesom is known only from the type locality of Sai Yok National Park, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand ( Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Grismer et al. (2010a) stated that Cnemaspis huaseesom is most commonly found on hillsides in lowland areas with karst boulders in semideciduous, dipterocarp forest amongst thick vegetation including bamboo. Lizards are generally active at night on karst boulders but may be found on vine-like vegetation near the boulders ( Fig. 24 ). This species is fast, wary, and flees into deep cracks and crevices at the slightest provocation. More than one lizard is usually found on a given outcropping. Lizards are only rarely observed during the day.

Relationships. Cnemaspis huaseesom is the sister species of C. siamensis ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Thailand: Kanchanaburi Province, Sai Yok National Park THNHM 15909 , PSUZC-RT 2010.55 , CUMZ-R 2009 , 6 , 24–4 (type series). Material examined since Grismer et al. (2010a) : Thailand: Kanchanaburi Province, Sai Yok National Park LSUHC 9455–58 .

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 23. Cnemaspis huaseesom from Sai Yok National Park, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Upper left; ventral views showing color pattern variation in adult males (LSUDPC 5225). Upper right; adult male (LSUDPC 5213) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower right: adult female (LSUDPC 5214) in the light color pattern phase. Photographs by LLG. Lower left: adult male (LSUDPC 8276) showing variation in color pattern in that it lacks a yellow tail. Photograph by MS.

FIGURE 24. Left: karst microhabitat of Cnemaspis huaseesom at Sai Yok National Park, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Photograph by LLG. Right: adult female (LSUDPC 8278) from Sai Yok National Park in the light color pattern phase. Photograph by MS.