Cyrtodactylus phongnhakebangensis

Luu, Vinh Quang, Bonkowski, Michael, Nguyen, Truong Quang, Le, Minh Duc, Schneider, Nicole, Ngo, Hanh Thi & Ziegler, Thomas, 2016, Evolution in karst massifs: Cryptic diversity among bent-toed geckos along the Truong Son Range with descriptions of three new species and one new country record from Laos, Zootaxa 4107 (2), pp. 101-140 : 132

Cyrtodactylus phongnhakebangensis group

Species. C. bansocensis , C. calamei , C. darevskii , C. hinnamnoensis , C. jaegeri , C. jarujini , C. khammouanensis , C. lomyenensis , C. multiporus , C. pageli , C. rufford , C. sommerladi , C. soudthichaki , C. teyniei .

Characters. Adult SVL 73–100.6 mm, supranasals 0–1; dorsal tubercles 10–24 (except for C. sommerladi , which only has 0–5); webbing between fingers and toes absent; tubercles on fore limbs lacking (except for C. calamei , C. hinnamnoensis , C. jaegeri , C. jarujini , C. multiporus , and C. soudthichaki ); tubercles on hind limbs present (except for C. pageli ); precloacal and femoral pores in males 20–60 (except for C. pageli only four and for C. teyniei such data is lacking); postcloacal tubercles 3–8 (rarely two); subcaudals enlarged; body bearing welldefined bands 3–8 (except for C. jarujini and C. teyniei , which are blotched).

Distribution. The group is mainly distributed in the karst forest mountains of Khammouane Province in central Laos, C. calamei , C. hinnamnoensis , and C. sommerladi are restricted to Hin Nam No NPA in the southeastern Khammouane Province. C. jarujini and C. teyniei are recorded from Bolikhamxay Province, while C. pageli is only known to occur in Vientiane Province.

Remarks. The Cyrtodactylus phongnhakebangensis group is very complex. Different morphological traits of the species of this group (e.g., body size, shape and number of dorsal bands, and number of precloacal and femoral pores, see Tables 7 & 13 ) were supported by other morphological and phylogenetic analyses (see Figs. 1–5 ). All species of the group are adapted to karst forested formations.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogram based on the Bayesian analysis. Number above and below branches are MP / ML bootstrap values and Bayesian posterior probabilities (> 50 %), respectively. Asterisk denotes 100 % value. Hyphen indicates the statistical support value lower than 50 %. Scale shows the number of expected substitutions per position as calculated in MrBayes v 3.2. New species and records marked in bold.

FIGURE 2. Cluster analysis showing species correlation of the Cyrtodactylus species based on morphological comparisons (1000 bootstrap replicates).

FIGURE 3. Correspondence analysis showing species association of Cyrtodactylus from Laos (except for Cyrtodactylus phongnhakebangensis and C. roesleri which are from Vietnam) based on morphological comparisons.

FIGURE 4. Correspondence analysis comparing all adult male measurements of four Cyrtodactylus sibling species: Cyrtodactylus hinnamnoensis sp. nov. (blue dots); Cyrtodactylus darevskii (pink dots); Cyrtodactylus calamei sp. nov. (red dots); and Cyrtodactylus phongnhakebangensis (black dots).

FIGURE 5. Principal components analysis comparing head shape of Cyrtodactylus sommerladi sp. nov. (red dots) and Cyrtodactylus roesleri (black dots) based on relative head width and head height.