Cnemaspis scalpensis ( Ferguson, 1877 )

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 : 19-21

Cnemaspis scalpensis ( Ferguson, 1877)

Neotype. NMSL 20061101 , Adult male, 33.48 mm SVL, from Agarapatana, Hatton, Sri Lanka, (N 06º 50’ 58.1” E 080º 40’ 35.0”, elevation 1524m), 17.09.2006, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and D A I Munindradasa.

Syntypes, NMSL 20061102 , Adult male, 30.11 mm SVL; NMSL 20061103 , Adult male 32.82 mm SVL, NMSL 20061104 , Adult male 34.23 mm SVL Adult male, the same date, locality and collectors.

Diagnosis. A medium-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 30–35 mm in adults), which can be distinguished from all known congeners by the following combination of characters: postmentals separated by a small scale; nostrils not in contact with first supralabial; seven supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at nine supra labials; 26 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; 74–76 dorsal tubercles; dorsal tubercles small, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; absence of groups of carinated large scales in dorsal body; spinelike tubercles present on flanks; 20 midventrals; ventral scales smooth and imbricate; mid-subcaudals large; no preanal pores; 13–14 femoral pores on each side; 10 subdigital lamellae and 4–5 basal lamellae in the 4 th finger; 11 subdigital lamellae and 6 basal lamellae in the 4 th toe; dorsal part of tail with large flushed and smooth scales, lower border with elongated diamonds.

Description of Neotype. Adult male (figs. 10, 12C, 16C, 20C, 24C and 28C) snout to vent length 33.48 mm, head depressed and narrow (HD / HLJ 0.38), head elongated and large (HLJ / SVL 0.28), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW 0.73), longer than the eye width (EW / SE 0.49). Eye relatively large (EW / HLJ 0.23). Ear opening small (EL / HLJ 0.10), inter ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW 2.56).

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 larger than the mid scale. The supranasal and postnasal consist of one smooth circular scale each and are bigger than the nostril, but smaller than internasal. The head is covered with circular, elongated, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped tubercle scales of different sizes 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. Similar scales (still smaller than that on the snout) are located in the lower and upper interorbital areas and, a set of very small scales are located in the parietal area. There are 26 interorbital scales. The supraciliaries are larger than 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 13 large, circular or elongated and smooth tubercle scales. There are 9 supralabials at the base of the jaw, with 7 at the mid orbit point. The first and second supralabials are larger than the others. The rest becomes progressively small. The dorsal tubercles are smaller than the interorbitals and are rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape, and all are of similar size. There are 74 dorsal tubercles at the mid region of the body which are rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal in shape. The spine-like tubercles are present on upper and lower flanks. The dorsal part of forelimb and hindlimb is covered with smooth, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped scales larger than that of the body. The dorsal part of tail is covered with flushed and smooth scales larger than the dorsal body. The tail with a dorsal groove is covered with large circular scales intermixed with even larger tubercles. This feature is prominent in the dorsal side. 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 six infralabials towards the jaw end, with five of them towards the mid orbit point. The first three infralabials are the largest and the rest becomes progressively smaller in size towards the anterior end. 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, circular, 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, imbricate and smaller than the postmentals 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 14 femoral pores and no preanal pores present. The preanal is smaller than anal scales. There are 47 subcaudals. The mid subcaudals are hexagonal in shape and larger than the other scales in the tail. The lower border appears to be elongated diamond in shape. 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.24.C .).

Colour in life. The body colour in the dorsal side is light brown. A transverse dark brown line is present in the interorbital area. There are irregular dark brown patches scattered in the dorsal head. A line staring from posterior parietal area runs down to anterior neck on either side. A square black mark is present in the mid neck area. The supraciliaries are yellow. The eye pupil is circular and black with the surrounding is being brown. The lateral view of the head and neck consists of a line staring from nasal to mid eye in loreal region, and going through the mid eye, extending down the body, and a second line starting from back of the eye and ending at the mid parietal area and a third line starting from the back of eye and ending at the angle of jaw, in a light brown background. The ventral view of the throat is dark grey or black in colour with darker supralabial boundaries. The mid dorsal body consists of four irregular dark brown ‘W’ with mid yellow patch and grey patches at angles, between fore and hind limbs. Three faded dark brown stripes are present on each lower and upper arm in a reddish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,4,5 and 3 is present on fingers in a reddish brown background. The ventral view of lower and upper arm (with a little yellow shade) is grey. A dark brown irregular line is present in upper flank while the lower flank is light brown in mid lateral view. The mid ventral view is grey or yellow in colour. Three segmented stripe are present on each femur and tibia in a reddish brown background. The black stripe formula of 2,3,3,5 and 4 is present on toes in a reddish brown background. The ventral femur and tibia is grey or yellow. The original part of the tail is light brown in colour, with 10 irregular dark brown markings, the one at the base of the tail is being a diminished ‘W’ shaped marking. The ventral tail is grey.

Colour in alcohol. All background has become brown and yellow has turned to grey and all markings to dark brown.

Remarks. C. scalpensis is congener with C. ranwellai very closely and C. alwisi sp. nov. from morphological characters. However, C. scalpensis can easily be distinguished from both by interorbital and supralabial counts, and from C. ranwellai by throat colour, infralabial and dorsal tubercle counts and lamellae formulae and from C. alwisi by internasal, dorsal tubercle, ventral subcaudal, femoral pores and loreal counts and lamellae formulae.

Figures

FIGURE 24. The ventral view of the hand, foot and tail of, A. C. alwisi sp. nov. 39.92 mm SVL (NMSL2004.9.1), B. C. ranwellai 30.50 mm SVL (NMSL2004.1.1) and C. C. scalpensis 34.23 mm SVL (NMSL20061101).