Cnemaspis molligodai, 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 : 9-10

Cnemaspis molligodai sp. nov.

Holotype. NMSL 20061401 , Adult male, 26.62 mm SVL, from Waratalgoda, Rathnapura, Sri Lanka, (N 06º 32’ 19.4” E 080º 18’ 27.4”, elevation 387m), 10.04.2000, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe.

Paratypes. NMSL 20061402 , Adult male, 27.77 mm SVL; NMSL 20061403 , Adult male, 25.82 mm SVL; NMSL 20061404 , Adult male, 27.21 mm SVL; NMSL 20061405 , Adult female, 27.11 mm SVL; the same date, locality and collector.

Diagnosis. A small-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 25–28 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 in contact with first supralabial; 7–8 supralabials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at 9–11 supralabials; 30–37 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; 78–80 dorsal tubercles; dorsal tubercles granulated; absence of groups of carinated large scales in dorsal body; spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; 20 midventrals; ventral smooth and subimbricate; subcaudals extremely large; 5 preanal pores; 8 femoral pores on each side; 11–13 subdigital lamellae and 4–5 basal lamellae in the 4 th finger; 12 subdigital lamellae and 6–7 basal lamellae in the 4 th toe; slightly large, smooth and segmented scales intermixed with subconicals in dorsal tail.

Description of Holotype. Adult male (figs. 4, 14A, 18A, 22A, 26A and 30A) snout to vent length 26.62 mm, body slender, elongated and depressed, head depressed and narrow (HD / HLJ 0.31), head elongated and large (HLJ / SVL 0.28), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW 0.77), longer than the eye width (EW / SE 0.40). Eye relatively large (EW / HLJ 0.18). Ear opening small (EL / HLJ 0.09), inter ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW 2.98).

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 small and equal in size. The supranasal and postnasal consist of one smooth circular scale each and are bigger than the nostril, and bigger or equal than internasal. The head is covered with smooth, 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 lower interorbital area. There are 34 interorbital scales of which mid scales are equal or smaller than that of outer. The supraciliaries are large. The nostril is oval, and is connected with the supralabials. The loreal region is convex and is covered with 12 large, circular, elongated, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped smooth tubercle scales. There are ten supralabials at the base of the jaw, with seven at the mid orbit point. The first supralabial is relatively large, and the rest becomes progressively small. The dorsal tubercles are smaller than the upper interorbitals and are rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, and different in size. There are 80 dorsal granulated tubercles at the mid region of the body. The spinelike tubercles are absent on flanks. The smooth tubercles present on the lower and upper parts of flank are a little larger than dorsal body scales. The dorsal part of forelimb and hindlimb is covered with large, circular, pentagonal or hexagonal scales. The dorsal part of tail is covered with slightly large, smooth and segmented scales. The slightly large subconicals are intermixed in the dorsal and lateral tail. The dorsal area of tail (from the base to mid region) consists of a groove. 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 or only with the first infralabial. There are nine 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 scales between the eye and ear. The scales in the throat are smooth, elongated, 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 20 scales, which are smooth, subimbricate and smaller than the postmental scales. 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 8 femoral pores and five preanal pores present. The preanal is smaller than anal scales. There are 44 subcaudals. The mid subcaudals are very larger than the other scales in the tail, and hexagonal in shape. Although the mid subcaudals are hexagonal in shape, the lower border appears to be slightly elongated-diamond in shape. This feature becomes prominent towards the tail. The keels are absent in subcaudals. The digits are slender, elongated and clawed. The distal sub-digital formulae include 4>5>3>2>1 (fingers) and 4>3>5>2>1 (toes) ( Fig.26.A .).

Colour in life. The body colour in the dorsal side is reddish brown. The dorsal head is randomly scattered with yellow and black dots. A yellow patch and a black patch are present on the anterior and posterior neck respectively. The supraciliaries are dark brown with intermittent yellow dots. The eye pupil is circular and black with the surrounding being reddish brown. The lateral view of head and neck consists of a broad black band from snout to end of neck through mid eye, while the portion from back of eye to end of neck being prominent, in a reddish brown background scattered with yellow and black dots and also yellow spots in supralabial. The ventral view of throat is grey with yellow dots, brown and black dots in ventral jaw. Two faded stripes are present on each lower and upper arm in a reddish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,4 and 3 is present on fingers in a brownish yellow background. The ventrolateral margin of upper arm is luminous blue under day light conditions. The ventral view of lower and upper arm is heavily dotted with black spots and scattered yellow spots in a grey background. The mid dorsal area of the body is reddish brown, scattered with black dots and irregular white patches, and with four black ‘W’ shaped marks having a yellow spot penetrating to the middle of each, between fore and hind limbs. The mid lateral view of the flank consists of scattered black spots in upper flank and a segmented black line between fore and hind limbs. The mid ventral view is grey with black spots on ventrolateral margin of mid body. Two faded stripes are present on each femur and tibia in a reddish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,5 and 4 is present on toes in a reddish brown background. The ventrolateral margin of femur is luminous blue under day light conditions. The ventral femur and tibia is light grey in colour with black and yellow scales in anterior and posterior boundaries of the femur respectively. The original part of the tail is reddish brown in colour, with 13 transverse marks of black, of which the mark at the base is ‘W’ shaped. The ventral tail is greyish yellow with light brown scale boundaries ( Fig.26.A .).

Colour in alcohol. All reddish brown in life is turned to light brown while the black to dark brown.

Etymology. The species is an eponym in the Latin genitive singular honouring Hayasith Molligoda, for his commitment towards conserving the reptile fauna in the country. The vernacular names assigned for the species nov. are Molligodage diva huna, Molligodavin pahal palli and Molligoda’s day gecko in native languages Sinhala, Tamil and in English respectively.

Remarks. C. molligodai sp. nov. is congener with C. podihuna from morphological characters. However, C. molligodai can easily be distinguished from C. podihuna by having narsal connected to first supralabial, intraorbital count, preannal pores count, dorsal tubercle count and snout to eye distance, and also from morphometric analysis. C. molligodai is found in split bark of large isolated trees up to canopy, often in colonies of 30–40 members, distributed in lowland wet zone. In addition to the type locality C. molligodai can be found also in Kalugala, Kukule ganga, Kanneliya-Nakiyadeniya, Kottawa, Oliyagankele, Gileemale, Hunuwela, Sinharaja-Kudawa and Sinharaja-East areas of Sri Lanka.

Figures

FIGURE 26. The ventral view of the hand, foot and tail of, A. C. molligodai sp. nov. 26.62 mm SVL (NMSL20061401) and B. C. podihuna 25.61 mm SVL (NMSL20061001).