Cnemaspis niyomwanae Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya, 2010a

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 : 36-38

Cnemaspis niyomwanae Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya, 2010a

Niyomwan’s Rock Gecko

Fig. 13

Holotype. THNHM 15910 . Type locality: “ Thum Khao Ting , Palean District, Trang Province, Thailand (07°09.943N, 99°48.142E) at 28 m in elevation.”

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 56.8 mm; 8–11 supralabials; 6–8 infralabials; ventral scales smooth; three usually contiguous, pore-bearing precloacal scales with round pores; 26–31 paravertebral tubercles; body tubercles randomly arranged, absent from flanks and from lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles; no lateral row of caudal tubercles; caudal tubercles not encircling tail; subcaudals smooth bearing a median row of enlarged scales; one or two postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral, subtibial or submetatarsal scales; subtibials smooth; 31–34 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; and reddish bands on limbs in males (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern in life ( Fig. 13 ). Dorsal ground color of head, body, and tail faded green; dorsal ground color of limbs faded brown; yellow stripe on each canthus rostralis; diffuse, light, paired, occipital blotches present; faint, light mottling on sides of head; whitish, medial blotch on nape followed posteriorly by five, lightly colored, paravertebral, butterfly-shaped markings between forelimb insertions and base of tail; markings continue onto tail to form lightly colored bands; enlarged, white tubercles on sides of neck, shoulders and flanks; other tubercles on body dark or lightly colored; faint, reddish dorsal blotches on body; upper regions of limbs bearing diffuse light mottling; alternating red and yellow bands on forelimbs and forelegs; digits white bearing broad, brown bands; all ventral surfaces except subcaudal region of uniform beige with fine, dark stippling in some scales; and subcaudal region grayish.

Distribution. Cnemaspis niyomwanae is known only from the border regions of Trang and Satun Provinces, Thailand ( Fig. 4 ).

Natural history. Very little is known about the life history of Cnemaspis niyomwanae . Grismer et al. (2010a) reported that it occurs in lowland karst areas in the vicinity of small streams ( Fig. 13 ) and that it is abroad at night. During the day, lizards retreat into limestone crevices and caves.

Relationships. Cnemaspis niyomwanae is a member of the Pattani clade and the sister species of C. kumpoli Taylor ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Thailand: Trang Province, Palean District, Thum Khao THNHM 15910 . La-ngu District , Baan Man Pud CUMZ R-2009, 6,24-10, KZM 008, PSUZC-RT 2010.56 , ZMKU Re-000315. These specimens represent the 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 4. Distribution of the species in the Pattani and Southern Sunda clades. Stars indicate type localities.

FIGURE 13. Cnemaspis niyomwanae from Thum Khao Ting, Palean District, Trang Province, Thailand. Upper left: adult female (LSUDPC 7035) in the light color pattern phase. Upper right: adult male (LSUDPC 7032) in the dark color pattern phase. Middle left: ventral coloration of adult female (LSUDPC 7036) which is the same as adult males. Middle right: subadult (LSUDPC 7034) in the light color pattern phase. Lower: habitat at Thum Khao Ting. Photographs by MS.