Lygodactylus tchokwe, Marques & Ceríaco & Buehler & Bandei- Ra & Janota & Bauer, 2020

Marques, Mariana P., Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Buehler, Matthew D., Bandei- Ra, Suzana A., Janota, Joyce M. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2020, A revision of the Dwarf Geckos, genus Lygodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Angola, with the description of three new species, Zootaxa 4853 (3), pp. 301-352 : 343-345

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4853.3.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:802D1C38-1186-4187-8289-5AC125242802
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4506727
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/63496A90-1C9B-460E-928B-A5EF7966A257
taxon LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:act:63496A90-1C9B-460E-928B-A5EF7966A257
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Lygodactylus tchokwe
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Lygodactylus tchokwe sp. nov.

( Tables 4, 5; Fig. 1–4 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 , 22–23 View FIGURE 22 View FIGURE 23 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:63496A90-1C9B-460E-928B-A5EF7966A257

Lygodactylus capensis ( Laurent 1964: 31)

Lygodactylus angolensis [part] ( Marques et al. 2018: 188)

Laurent (1964) noted the presence of an extralimital population of L. capensis in the northeastern provinces of Lunda Sul and Moxico. While some historical records of L. capensis exist for the neighboring areas in Katanga region, Democratic Republic of the Congo ( de Witte 1933; Loveridge 1947), the main distribution of L. capensis is the southeastern region of the continent, extending inland to Botswana and southern Zambia, then northeast to Kenya (but see earlier comments on the paraphyly of L. capensis ). Given its distribution, Marques et al. (2018) wrongly considered that the records from Laurent (1964) should represent L. angolensis , but a review of the data presented by Laurent suggested that this interpretation was incorrect. Laurent (1964) presented data on six specimens, three males and two females from Alto Cuílo, in Lunda Sul Province, and one female from Luisavo, Moxico Province. Two of the males had four precloacal pores, but one of the males had only two. Although the range of precloacal pores in L. capensis varies from four to seven ( Branch (1998), Jacobsen (2011) noted that a small percentage of specimens may have only three pores), a range in which two of Laurent’s specimens would fit; among regional congeners only L. lawrencei is known to have two precloacal pores. The range of precloacal pores in L. angolensis is from seven to ten, which excludes the tentative identification of Marques et al. (2018). Other characters presented by Laurent (1964) are also sufficient to dismiss its original identification as L. capensis . The number of scales entering the nostril is three (one supranasal, 1 st supralabial and one postnasal) in all specimens except the female from Luisavo (MD 5312d). This combination of characters, especially in the case of the adult male with two single pores, suggests that the Lunda animals cannot be allocated to any of the currently known species of Lygodactylus occurring in the region. We were able to reexamine these specimens in the collections of Museu do Dundo. This was crucial, as Laurent’s (1964) data on gekkonids has been found to be wrong on other occasions (see Ceríaco et al. (2020). Mensural and meristic data on the specimens are presented in Table 6. Our analysis of the specimens confirmed Laurent’s (1964) observations. Given that part of this series of specimens has distinctive morphological characters that unambiguously differentiate it from all other known Lygodactylus species, we describe it here as new species.

Holotype. An adult male ( MD 5312 b; Fig. 22 View FIGURE 22 ) collected at Alto Cuílo, Lunda Sul Province, northeastern Angola [-10.0º, 19.58333º, 1256m a.s.l.], collected by an unidentified local, on November 1954.

Paratype. Two adult males ( MD 5312 a, 5312c) and one adult female ( MD 5312 d), with the same collecting data as the holotype .

Additional material. One adult female ( MD 5337 ), with the same collection data as the holotype, except the collecting date (28 May 1954); one adult female ( MD 5791 ), collected at Luisavo Waterfalls in Calunda Post, Moxico Province, northeastern Angola [- 11.86667º N, 23.58333º E, 1212 m a.s.l.], collected by an unidentified local, on February 1955 GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis. A medium sized Lygodactylus species. Lygodactylus tchokwe sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by the following combination of characteristics: 1) three scales surrounding the nostril (one supranasal, 1 st supralabial and one postnasal); 2) nostrils separated from the rostral and pierced between supranasal and the upper limit of first supralabial; 3) mental followed by three postmentals; 4) first infralabial <25–50% overlap with postpostmental; 5) 15 to 16 rows of ventral scales at midbody; 6) 2–4 precloacal pores; 7) median subcaudals (in a rengenerated tail) arranged in a row about ¼ or less of the width of the tail ( Fig. 4E View FIGURE 4 ); 8) venter cream 9) gular region without markings.

Comparison with other South and Southwestern African Lygodactylus . The species differs from L. angolensis and L. chobiensis in having fewer precloacal pores (2 to 4 versus 7–10 in L. angolensis and 7–11 in L. chobiensis ) ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ). It may be distinguished from L. nyaneka sp. nov. and L. capensis by having three scales surrounding the nostril (versus four in L. nyaneka sp. nov. ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ) and five in L. capensis ), and from L. bradfieldi and L. capensis by having the nostril separated from the rostral (versus nostril contacting rostral). It differs from L. lawrencei by the lack of gular ornamentation in males, and by having the nostrils separated from the rostral, in contact with the supranasal and pierced near the dorsal margin of the first labial (versus nostrils separated and pierced between supranasal and first labial; Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ).

Description of holotype. SVL 32.4 mm; TrunkL: 16.1 mm; CrusL 5.3 mm; TL: 29.3 mm; TW: 2.9 mm; HL: 8.8 mm; HW: 6.2 mm; HH: 3.4 mm; EarL: 0.9 mm; ForeaL: 3.1 mm; ED: 1.6 mm; NE: 3.5 mm; SE: 3.9 mm; EE: 3.6 mm; IN: 1.1 mm; IO: 2.8 mm. Head broad and slightly distinct from neck; snout broader than long, the distance from its edge to the anterior border of the eye greater than the interorbital distance anteriorly, and slightly greater than the distance between the eye and ear opening; ear opening medium and oval; snout covered with enlarged homogeneous flattened granular scales, becoming smaller laterally above the eye; scales on the snout slightly larger than those on the occiput; prominent canthus rostralis; rostral pentagonal-shape, wider than high; three scales surrounding the nostril (one supranasal, 1 st supralabial and one postnasal); nostrils in contact with the supranasal and pierced near the dorsal margin of the first labial; nostril without contact with rostral ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ); supranasals separated by three granular internasal scales; mental similar to a pentagonal-shape broader than long, followed by three postmentals; scales behind postmentals intermediate in size, decreasing towards base of the throat and increasing on chest and belly; supralabials 7; infralabials 6; first infralabial with 25% contact with postpostmental; gulars smooth, enlarged and forming transverse rows posteriorly, 25 between posterior extent of the infralabials/jaws; 16 rows of ventral scales at midbody; limbs short but well developed, extremities pentadactyl; 1 st digit of both manus and pes extremely reduced and lacking claw, distal portions of remaining digits expanded, bearing claw; 4 pair of lamellae under 4 th digit of manus and 5 pair of lamellae beneath 4 th digit of pes; dorsum with small, homogeneous, granular and keeled scales with a similar size to those on trunk, the scales on limbs are slightly larger; venter with enlarged, smooth, homogeneous scales; scales on ventral surface of the fore- and hindlimbs are similar to those on venter, scales of thighs are slightly smaller and imbricate; precloacal pores 2 ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ); approximately 25 enlarged generation glands present along the ventral surface of each thigh; tail regenerated, cylindrical; dorsal caudal scales enlarged, flattened and homogeneous; keeled, spinose and acuminate on the lateral surface of the tail; median subcaudals scales flattened and smooth, approximately ¼ width of tail, arranged in irregular rows (no pattern).

Coloration in ethanol. All the known specimens of Lygodactylus tchokwe sp. nov. are homogeneous darkbrown dorsally. There are vestiges of a pale dorsolateral irregular spots in the flanks of the dorsum and tail, but they have mostly faded or vanished due to long term storage in formalin.

Variation. Variation in scalation and body measurements of the type series is reported in Table 5. The female paratype agrees almost entirely with the holotype, although the markings on gular region are more faded. The male paratypes both have four precloacal pores.

Distribution. The new species is known only from Alto Cuílo, Lunda Sul Province, and Luisavo, in Moxico Province ( Fig. 23 View FIGURE 23 ). It is probable that the species occurs in the neighboring province of Lunda Norte, and potentially in neighboring areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western Zambia.

Habitat and Natural history notes. Almost nothing is known regarding the habitat and natural history of this species. According to Laurent (1964), the specimen from Luisavo was collected in a moist forest.

Etymology. The specific epithet “ tchokwe ” is given in honor of the dominant ethnolinguistic group of the region where the species exists. We suggest “Tchokwe Dwarf Gecko” and “Osga-Anã-Quioca” as the English and Portuguese common names, respectively, for this species.