Cnemaspis neangthyi Grismer, Grismer & Thou, 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 : 42-43

Cnemaspis neangthyi Grismer, Grismer & Thou, 2010

Neang Thy’s Rock Gecko

Fig. 17

Holotype. LSUHC 8485 . Type locality: “…outside the village of O’lakmeas, Pursat Province, Cambodia (12°19.4339N, 103°30.6059E)” at 145 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 54.0 mm; 11–13 supralabials; 10–12 infralabials; smooth ventral scales; two round, contiguous pore-bearing, precloacal scales with round pores; 20–26 paravertebral tubercles; dorsal tubercles linearly arranged; caudal tubercles not restricted to a single paravertebral row; tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; ventrolateral caudal tubercles present anteriorly; caudal tubercles do not encircle tail; subcaudals smooth, bearing a median row of enlarged scales; one postcloacal tubercle on each side; no enlarged femoral, subtibial or submetatarsal scales on first toe; subtibials keeled; 22–25 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; lacks the diagnostic color pattern characteristics of the other species in the Indochina clade (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 17 ). Dorsal ground color of body and limbs olive-green to dull-yellow; head bearing a distinct, black parietal spot; radiating black and dull-white postorbital lines; light-green chevron marking on anterior margin of shoulder region; body overlain with light colored, paired, paravertebral blotches containing a central black dot and alternating with round, black blotches that extend onto tail to form poorly defined alternating dark and light bands; regenerated tail dull yellow, nearly unicolor; black spots on flanks invade lateral margins of abdomen; limbs stippled with light green and black; venter dull yellow with black stippling in scales.

Distribution. Cnemaspis neangthyi is known only from the type locality at O'Lakmeas, Pursat Province, Cambodia ( Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. According to J. Grismer et al. (2010), Cnemaspis neangthyi is strictly nocturnal and found exclusively on boulders and cliff faces formed from sedimentary limestone-like rock. Cnemaspis neangthyi is most commonly found on vertical and overhanging faces, within cracks and shallow wind-eroded holes, shallow caves, and beneath exfoliations ( Fig. 17 ). Cnemaspis neangthyi is adept at substrate matching and J. Grismer et al. (2010) found lizards only on sections of the rock wall containing light and dark green-colored lichens where their mottled color pattern enhanced their crypsis. No specimens were observed on the ground or in vegetation but when disturbed, lizards would run to the base of the rock wall to hide in cracks and holes formed by the expansive soil at the ground-rock interface.

Relationships. Cnemaspis neangthyi is the sister species of the Vietnamese lineage containing C. aurantiacopes , C. caudanivea , C. tucdupensis , and C. nuicamensis ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Cambodia: Pursat Province, O’Lakmeas LSUHC 8478 , 8485 , 8515–17 (type series) .

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 17. Upper left: adult male Cnemaspis neangthyi from near the village of O’lakmeas, Pursat Province, Cambodia. Right: siltstone microhabitat of C. neangthyi. Lower left: lowland, dry, deciduous dipterocarp forest habitat through which C. neangthyi ranges in isolated microhabitat islands. Photographs by LLG.