Cnemaspis kumarasinghei, 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 : 7-8

Cnemaspis kumarasinghei sp. nov.

Holotype. NMSL 20061301 , Adult male, 31.61 mm SVL, from Maragala, Monaragala, Sri Lanka, (N 06º 52’ 55.8” E 081º 23’ 09.7”, elevation 910m), 27.04.2004, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and R. H.S.S. Fernando.

Paratypes. NMSL 20061302 , Adult male, 28.96 mm SVL, the same date, locality and collectors.

Diagnosis. A small-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 28–32 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 the first supralabial; six or seven supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at eight supra labials; 26 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; dorsal tubercles 61–68; dorsal tubercles small, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; absence of groups of carinated large scales in dorsal body; spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; midventrals 22; ventral scales smooth and imbricate; subcaudals slightly large; 2–3 preanal pores; 3–4 femoral pores on each side; 11–12 subdigital lamellae and 4 basal lamellae in the 4 th finger; 12 subdigital lamellae and 6 basal lamellae in the 4 th toe; dorsal tail with carinated tubercles and subimbricate scales..

Description of Holotype. Adult male ( Fig.3 , 13A , 17A , 21A , 25A and 29A ) snout to vent length 31.61 mm, head depressed and narrow (HD / HLJ 0.34), head elongated and large (HLJ / SVL 0.30), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW 0.74), longer than eye width (EW / SE 0.37). Eye relatively large (EW / HLJ 0.17). Ear opening small (EL / HLJ 0.06), eye to ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW 3.12).

Rostral is large with a groove penetrating 3/4 of the scale. There are three internasals, with the mid scale being equal or 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 slightly smaller than internasal and lager 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 either upper interorbital area. There are 26 interorbital scales of which mid scales are shorter and smaller than that of outer. The supraciliaries are large. The nostril is round or 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 slightly rounded and is covered with 15 large, circular, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped smooth tubercle scales. There are eight supralabials at the base of the jaw, with six at the mid orbit point. The first supralabial is relatively large, while the second and third are elongated than the others. The forth, fifth and sixth become progressively small. The rest becomes even smaller in size towards the posterior end. 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 58 dorsal tubercles at the mid region of the body. The spine-like tubercles are absent on flanks. The subconical tubercles present on the lower part of flank are a little larger than dorsal body scales and the conical imbricates present on the upper part of flank are slightly larger 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 dorsal part of tail is covered with slightly large, carinated tubercles as well as large subimbricate scales. The subimbricates are prominent in the dorsal side than the lateral side. The dorsal area of tail (from the base to mid region) consists of a diminished 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. There are eight 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 22 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 36 scales, which are smooth, imbricate and smaller than the postmental scales. The scales in ventral portion of fore and hind limbs possess keels, with the scales in the hind limb being relatively larger than those of the forelimb. There are three femoral pores and two preanal pores present. The preanal is larger than anal scales. There are 68 subcaudals. The mid subcaudals are slightly larger than the other scales in the tail. 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 tail. The keels are absent in subcaudals. The tip of the tail shows signs of regeneration. The digits are slender, elongated and clawed, while inter-digital webs are absent. The distal sub-digital formulae include 4>3>2>5>1 (fingers) and 4>3>5>2>1 (toes) ( Fig.25.A .).

Colour in life. The body colour in the dorsal side is yellowish brown. There is a black transverse band in interorbital area. A closed contour of black comprised of boundaries of internasal, loreal, upper interorbital and parietal areas and a marking of the shape of ‘W’ (with a light yellow patch in posterior end of the ‘W’) on the 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 oval and black with the surrounding being yellow. 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 yellow background with faded black spots in supralabial, lower jaw and lower neck areas. The ventral view of the throat is light yellow with randomly distributed, irregular faded black markings, and irregular black lines in lower infralabial margin. Three faded stripes are present on each lower and upper arm in a yellow background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,4 and 3 is present on fingers in a yellow background. The ventral view of lower and upper arm is light brown. The mid dorsal area of the body is brownish yellow, with three faded ‘W’ shaped markings between fore and hind limbs and in-between ‘W’s there are segmented transverse lines. 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 yellow in colour with randomly distributed irregular black markings. Three faded stripes are present on each femur and tibia in a yellow background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,5 and 4 is present on toes in a yellow background. The ventral femur and tibia is light brown. There is a black line in a yellow background in the back lateral view of femur. The original part of the tail is light yellow in colour, with 13 transverse marks of faded black, of which the mark at the base is ‘W’ shaped (since the tail of the holotype was regenerated, observation were made from the paratype as well). The ventral tail is brownish yellow in colour.

Colour in alcohol. All yellow in life is turned to greyish white and black to dark brown.

Etymology. The species is an eponym in the Latin genitive singular honouring Siril Kumarasinghe, for his sacrifices towards conserving the wildlife in the country, eventually giving away his own life to the very cause. The vernacular names assigned for the species nov. are Kumarasinhage diva huna, Kumarasinghevin pahal palli and Kumarasinghe’s day gecko in native languages Sinhala, Tamil and in English respectively.

Remarks. C. kumarasinghei sp. nov. is congener with C. kandiana and C. retigalensis sp. nov. from morphological characters. However, C. kumarasinghei can easily be distinguished from C. kandiana by having smooth gula scales and, from C. retigalensis by having preanal scales, and also from morphometric analysis. C. kumarasinghei is found on trees in hill tops, often in male-female pairs.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Holotype male of C. kumarasinghei sp. nov. 31.61 mm SVL (NMSL20061301)

FIGURE 13. The dorsal, lateral and ventral view of the head 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).

FIGURE 17. The dorsal, lateral and ventral view of the mid body 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).

FIGURE 21. The dorsal and lateral view of the upper body and the ventral view of the lower body 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).

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).

FIGURE 29. The plot of factor scores 1 and 2 of multivariate principal components analysis based on unrotated coefficients of log-transposed morphometric characters of C. kumarasinghei sp. nov., C. retigalensis sp. nov. and C. kandiana indicating the uniqueness of both new species among other species found associative from morphological comparison.