Cnemaspis bayuensis Grismer, Grismer, Wood & Chan, 2008

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 : 90-92

Cnemaspis bayuensis Grismer, Grismer, Wood & Chan, 2008

Kampung Bayu Rock Gecko

Fig. 48

Holotype. ZRC 2.6759 . Type locality: “ Gua Bayu , Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia (05°05.650 N, 102°13.265 E)” at 120 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 46.1 mm; nine or 10 supralabials; eight or nine infralabials; ventral scales keeled; 5–9 discontinuous, pore-bearing precloacal scales with round pores; 23–30 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles not linearly arranged, present on flanks; tubercles absent from lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles; lateral caudal row present; caudal tubercles not restricted to a single paravertebral row nor encircling tail; all subcaudals keeled, no enlarged median scacle row; two postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; subtibials keeled; no submetatarsal scales on first toe; 27–32 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; whitish bars on flanks (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern in life ( Fig. 48 ). Ground color of dorsal surfaces of head, body, limbs, and tail brown; head and body overlain with irregularly shaped, dark spots; light markings on occiput; a single, thin, dark, postorbital stripe extends onto nape does not contact medially with an opposing postorbital stripe; dark, anteriorly projecting, triangular marking between opposing postorbital stripes; white, paravertebral markings on nape followed by distinct, white, alternating, paravertebral blotches extending to base of tail; transversely elongate, distinct, white bars on flanks; dark blotches often on body; diffuse brown and mottled white bands encircle tail; dark caudal banding sometimes present; irregularly shaped, dark and light markings on limbs; dark and light, diffuse bands encircle digits; gular region bears a faint, brown, reticulate pattern; ventral surfaces of body and limbs dull beige, immaculate and darkened laterally; subcaudal region suffused with dark pigment.

Distribution. Cnemaspis bayuensis is known only from the type locality of Gua Bayu, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia ( Grismer et al. 2008b: Fig. 3 ) but is likely to be found throughout the nearby karst region.

Natural history. Grismer et al. (2008b) noted that Cnemaspis bayuensis is a saxicolous species restricted to the lowland karst outcroppings ( Fig. 48 ) of the Gua Bayu region surrounding the village of Bayu. Lizards are diurnal and occur along the periphery of the karst formations in cracks as well as on cave walls and ceilings as high as 5 m above the ground. Lizards have not been found deep within the cave systems. This species is adept at matching the color of its substrate be it the light colored cave walls or the dark, lichen-colored isolated karst boulders scattered along the periphery of the karst towers. Females carrying two eggs have been observed during mid-June.

Relationships. Cnemaspis bayuensis is the sister species of C. stongensis sp. nov. ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Malaysia: Kelantan, Gua Bayu ZRC 2.6759 – 61 , LSUHC 9073 (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 48. Cnemaspis bayuensis from Gua Bayu, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Left: karst microhabitat of C. bayuensis near Kampung Bayu. Upper right: adult male (LSUDPC 4417) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower right: adult female (LSUDPC 4420) in the light color pattern phase. Photographs by LLG.