Cnemaspis podihuna Deraniyagala, 1944

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 : 16-18

Cnemaspis podihuna Deraniyagala, 1944

Neotype. NMSL 20061001 , Adult male, 24.47 mm SVL, from Lahugala, Siyabalanduwa, Sri Lanka, (N 06º 52’ 55.9” E 081º 42’ 30.2”, elevation 387m), 24.03.2006, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and D A I Munindradasa.

Syntypes, NMSL 20061002 , Adult male, 26.61 mm SVL; NMSL 20061003 , Adult male, 24.95 mm SVL; NMSL 20061004 , Subadult female, 21.70 mm SVL, the same date, locality and collectors.

Diagnosis. A small-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 22–27 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; 6–7 supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at nine supra labials; 24 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; 58–60 dorsal tubercles; dorsal tubercles small, granulated, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; 28 midventrals; ventral subimbricate; subcaudals very large; 3–4 preanal pores; 3–4 femoral pores on each side; 10– 11 subdigital lamellae and 4 basal lamellae in the 4 th finger; 12 subdigital lamellae and 4–5 basal lamellae in the 4 th toe; mid subcaudals extremely large.

Description of Neotype. Adult male (figs. 8, 14B, 18B, 22B, 26B and 30B) snout to vent length 24.47 mm, body slender, elongated and depressed, head depressed and narrow (HD / HLJ 0.38), head elongated and large (HLJ / SVL 0.27), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW 0.68), longer than the eye width (EW / SE 0.45). Eye relatively large (EW / HLJ 0.19). Ear opening small (EL / HLJ 0.05), inter ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW 2.77).

Rostral is large with a groove penetrating half of the scale. There are three internasals, with the mid scale being large in size to the nostril, and the other two are small or equal in size. The supranasal and postnasal consist of one smooth circular scale each and are bigger than the nostril, but equal in size to internasal. The head is covered with very large, 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 24 interorbital scales of which mid scales are equal or smaller than that of outer. The supraciliaries are very large. 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 flat and is covered with 11 very large, circular, elongated, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped smooth tubercle scales. There are nine 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 granulated tubercles are smaller than the lower interorbitals and are rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, and different in size. There are 60 dorsal tubercles at the mid region of the body. The spine-like tubercles are absent on flanks. The smooth and conical 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 large conical tubercles are in a row in the ventrolateral margin. 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 pentagonal or hexagonal postmentals (smaller than the mental) is present on either side. The first postmental pair is separated by a medium sized 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 nine infralabials towards the jaw end, with six of them towards the mid orbit point. The fourth infralabial is the largest and the rest becomes progressively smaller in size towards either direction. The ear holes are oval shaped, bigger than nostrils, but smaller than eyes. There are 20 scales between the eye and ear. The scales in the throat are smooth, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, the anterior scales being extremely larger than the posterior scales. The gular scales are smooth. The mid ventral area consists of 28 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 four femoral and preanal pores present. The preanal is smaller than anal scales. There are 39 subcaudals. The mid subcaudals are extremely larger than the other scales in the tail, and subhexagonal in shape. Although the mid subcaudals are subhexagonal 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>3>5>2>1 (fingers) and 4>3>5>2>1 (toes) ( Fig.26.C .).

Colour in life. The body colour in the dorsal side is whitish grey. The dorsal head is randomly scattered with faded black patches. A yellow patch penetrating in to a black ‘W’ shaped marking is present on the anterior neck. The supraciliaries are yellow. The eye pupil is circular and black. The lateral view of the head and neck consists of a black line from snout to the end of neck through mid eye, while the portion from back of eye to end of neck is being thick, a line from back of eye to the angle of jaw and a line from back of eye to the posterior parietal area, in a whitish grey background scattered with white and black dots in supralabial. The ventral view of the throat is whitish grey. Three faded stripe are present on each lower and upper arm in a whitish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,3,4 and 3 is present on fingers in a yellow background. The lateral view of the upper arm is luminous blue in day light. The ventral view of lower and upper arm is grey. The mid dorsal area of the body is whitish, with four black ‘W’ marks between fore and hind limbs. The mid lateral view of the flank consists of scattered black spots and irregular yellow markings fore and hind limbs in a whitish grey background. The mid ventral view is whitish grey. Three faded stripes are present on each femur and tibia in a whitish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,5 and 4 is present on toes in a yellow background. The ventrolateral margin of femur is luminous blue under day light conditions. The ventral femur and tibia is whitish grey in colour. The original part of the tail is whitish brown, with 12 transverse marks of black, of which the mark at the base is ‘W’ shaped. The ventral tail is whitish grey.

Colour in alcohol. All yellow and white in life is turned in to grey and light brown in to dark brown while the black has become prominent.

Remarks. C. podihuna is congener with. C. molligodai sp. nov..from morphological characters. However, C. podihuna can easily be distinguished from C. molligodai by having nasal not connected to first supralabial, intraorbital count, preanal pores count, dorsal tubercle count and snout to eye distance, and also from morphometric analysis.

The voucher specimen deposited in National Museum Sri Lanka (NMSL) in place of the misplaced type specimen of C. podihuna differs in morphological detail to type description as well as to the morphometric parameters of specimens collected from the type locality. The above specimen belongs to C.molligodai sp. nov. of the present study, hence the neotype of C. podihuna (NMSL 20061001) is deposited.

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).