Cnemaspis retigalensis, Mendis Wickramasinghe & Munindradasa, 2007

Mendis Wickramasinghe, L. J. & Munindradasa, D. A. I., 2007, Review of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Sauria: Gekkonidae) in Sri Lanka with the description of five new species, Zootaxa 1490 (1), pp. 1-63 : 10-12

Cnemaspis retigalensis sp. nov.

Holotype. NMSL 20061201 , Adult male, 28.76 mm SVL, from Weweltenna, Retigala, Sri Lanka, (N 08º 06’ 40.3” E 080º 39’ 31.4”, elevation 710m), 30.10.2005, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and D. A. I. Munindradasa.

Paratypes. NMSL 20061202 , Adult female, 30.87 mm SVL; NMSL 20061203 , Adult female, 26.56 mm ; NMSL 20061204 , Adult male 27.67 mm SVL. Date of Collection 27.08.2006, the same locality and collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and Roshan Rodrigo.

Diagnosis. A small-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 26–31 mm in an adult males), which can be distinguished from all known congeners by the following combination of characters: postmentals separated by a small scale; nostrils are not in contact with first supralabial; six supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at 7–8 supra labials; 30–32 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; dorsal tubercles 62–65; dorsal tubercles small, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; absence of groups of carinated large scales in dorsal body; presence of conical tubercles, larger than dorsal body scales on the lower part of flank; spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; scales on the thigh intermixed with the tricarinated form; gular scales smooth; midventrals 26–27; ventral smooth and imbricate; subcaudals slightly large; preanal pores absent; 3–4 femoral pores on each side; 11 subdigital lamellae and 3 basal lamellae in the 4 th finger; 11–12 subdigital lamellae and 6 basal lamellae in the 4 th toe.

Description of Holotype. Adult male (figs. 5, 13B, 17B, 21B, 25B and 29B) snout to vent length 28.76 mm, head depressed and narrow (HD / HLJ 0.38), head elongated and large (HLJ / SVL 0.29), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW 0.76), longer than the eye width (EW / SE 0.43). Eye relatively large (EW / HLJ 0.20). Ear opening small (EL / HLJ 0.11), inter ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW 2.87).

Rostral is large with a groove penetrating 3/4 of the scale. There are three internasals, with the mid scale being large in size to the nostril, and the other two are larger. The supranasal and postnasal consist of one smooth circular scale each and are bigger than the nostril, but equal or smaller than internasal and larger than the mid one. The head is covered with elongated, round, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped tubercle scales from snout to posterior margin of interorbital area and with small granulated scales up to the neck. The size of tubercle scales becomes progressively smaller from the snout to interorbital area. However, a group of large scales (still smaller than that on the snout) is located on upper interorbital area, and a set of very small scales are located in the parietal area. There are 30 interorbital scales of which mid scales are shorter and smaller than that of outer. The supraciliaries are slightly larger than upper interorbital scales. The nostril is oval, and is not connected with the supralabials. The nostril and the first supralabial are separated by a postnasal. The loreal region is convex and is covered with 15 large, circular and elongated, smooth tubercle scales. There are seven supralabials at the base of the jaw, with six at the mid orbit point. The first supralabial is equal or small to the second and third. The rest becomes progressively small. The dorsal tubercles are smaller than the upper interorbitals and are rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, and all are of similar size. There are 62 dorsal tubercles at the mid region of the body. The spine-like tubercles are absent on flanks. The conical tubercles present on the lower part of flank are larger than dorsal body scales and the subconical scales present on the upper part of flank are slightly smaller than the above. The dorsal part of forelimb and hind limb is covered with a flushed and juxtaposed, comparatively large scales with a keel. The scales on the thigh are intermixed with the tricarinated form. The tail is covered with scales larger than the dorsal body and the ventrolateral margin possesses rounded tubercles larger than tail scales. The mental scale is large and sub-triangular. A pair of rounded and pentagonal or hexagonal postmentals (smaller than the mental) is present on either side. The first postmental pair is separated by a small scale, and is connected with the first infralabial. The second postmental pair is smaller, and is connected with the first and second infralabials. There are seven infralabials towards the jaw end, with six of them towards the mid orbit point. The infralabials become progressively smaller in size towards the anterior end. The ear holes are oval shaped, bigger than nostrils, but smaller than eyes. There are 24–26 scales between the eye and ear. The scales in the throat are smooth, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, the anterior scales being larger than the posterior scales. The gular scales are smooth. The mid ventral area consists of 26 scales, which are smooth, imbricate and smaller than the postmentals. The scales in ventral portion of fore and hind limbs are smooth, with the scales in the hind limb being relatively larger than those of the forelimb. There are four femoral pores and no preanal pores present. The preanal is smaller than anal scales. There are 70 subcaudals. The mid subcaudals are slightly larger than the other scales in the tail or equal in size. Although the mid subcaudals are circular or overlapping diamond in shape, the lower border appears to be slightly elongated-diamond in shape. This feature becomes prominent towards the end of tail. The keels are absent in subcaudals. The digits are slender, elongated and clawed. The distal sub-digital formulae include 4>3>2>5>1 (fingers) and 4>3>5>2>1 (toes) ( Fig.25.B .).

Colour in life. The body colour in the dorsal side is light brown. There is a faded black transverse band on either upper interorbital area. A closed contour of black comprised of boundaries of internasal, loreal, upper interorbital and parietal areas and a ‘W’ shaped marking (with a light yellow patch in posterior ‘W’) on anterior neck is on the dorsal head. A black patch is present on the posterior neck. The supraciliaries are light yellow. The eye pupil is circular and black with the surrounding being luminous red. The lateral view of the head and neck consists of three black line segments (one from nasal to mid eye in loreal region, the other along lower parietal boundary – both dorsally seen as part of the closed contour and the third from back of eye to neck on temporal region) in a brownish yellow background with yellow spots in supralabial, lower jaw and lower neck areas. The ventral view of the throat is light grey with irregular yellow markings in ventral jaw. Three faded stripes are present on each lower and upper arm in a brownish yellow background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,3,4 and 3 is present on fingers in a brownish yellow background. The ventral view of lower and upper arm is light brown. The mid dorsal area of the body is light brown, with four faded ‘W’ marks between fore and hind limbs. The black spots in upper flank and yellow and back spots in lower flank are present in mid lateral view. The mid ventral view is light grey with yellow irregular markings on ventrolateral margin of mid body. Three faded stripe are present on each femur and tibia in a brownish yellow background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,5 and 4 is present on toes in a brownish yellow background. The ventral femur and tibia are light grey in colour with yellow scale boundaries. The original part of the tail is light grey, with 13 transverse marks of faded black, of which the mark at the base and the next are ‘W’ shaped, and next two are hourglass shaped, and the rest is straight. The ventral aspect of tail is grey.

Colour in alcohol. All yellow in life is turned to white while the rest is conserved.

Etymology. The species epithet retigalensis is derived from Latin for “Retigala” referring to the forest where the species nov. is discovered. The vernacular names assigned for the species nov. are Retigala diva huna, Retigala pahal palli and Retigala day gecko in native languages Sinhala, Tamil and in English respectively.

Remarks. C. retigalensis sp. nov. is congener with C. kandiana and C. kumarasinghei sp. nov. from morphological characters. However, C. retigalensis can easily be distinguished from C. kandiana by the absence of preanal pores and having smooth gula scales and, from C. kumarasinghei by absence of preanal pores and presence of scales on the thigh intermixed with the tricarinated form, and also from morphometric analysis. Specimens with yellow vertebra line are found rarely. C. retigalensis is often found in hill tops, on the lower 2m of trees and rocks.

Figures

FIGURE 25. The ventral view of the hand, foot and tail of, A. C. kumarasinghei sp. nov. 31.61 mm SVL (NMSL20061301), B. C. retigalensis sp. nov. 27.67 mm SVL (NMSL20061201) and C. C. kandiana 29.24 mm SVL (NMSL20060901).