Cyrtodactylus majulah Grismer, Wood & Lim, 2012

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 100-102

Cyrtodactylus majulah Grismer, Wood & Lim, 2012 — Native.

Cyrtodactylus majulah L.L. Grismer, Wood & K.K.P. Lim, 2012: 490 . Holotype: ZRC 2.6950 , by original designation; paratypes (4): ZRC 2.6951 – 53 , LSUHC 10458 , by original designation. Type locality: “ Singapore: Central Catchment Nature Reserve , Nee Soon Swamp-forest (1°22’48.99”N, 103°49’05.39”E)”.

Singapore Bent-toed Gecko

( Figure 12A ; Dairy Farm Nature Park)

Singapore records.

Gymnodactylus marmoratus —Sworder, 1925a: 63 (Botanic Gardens).—Smith, 1930: 12.

Cyrtodactylus marmoratus —K. Lim, 1989h: 64 (Nee Soon Swamp Forest; Sime Road Forest).

Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus (non Taylor, 1962)— Dring, 1979: 228.—K. Lim, 1990a: 10 (Nee Soon Swamp Forest).—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 55.— Denzer & Manthey, 1991: 314.—K.K.P. Lim, 1991a: 4 (Nee Soon Swamp Forest).—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 121, 150.—P.K.L. Ng & K.K.P. Lim, 1992: 260.—R. Subaraj, 1994: 13 (Mandai Range Forest; Seletar North Forest [USNF]; Sime Road Forest; Upper Peirce West Forest).—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.—K.K.P. Lim, 1994b: 331.—R.C.H. Teo & Rajathurai, 1997: 390 (Bukit Timah [BTNR]; Nee Soon [NSSF]; Upper Seletar).— Manthey & Grossmann, 1997: 227.— Cox et al., 1998: 89.—Chan-ard et al., 1999: 24.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 150.—L.L. Grismer & T.M. Leong, 2005: 590 (Nee Soon Swamp [NSSF]).—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 80, 159.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2008: 265.— Das, 2010: 214.—L.L. Grismer, 2011a: 118.—L.L. Grismer, 2011b: 426, 431.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2012: 80, 160.—C.B. Johnson et al., 2012: 39, 40.—L.K. Wang et al., 2012: 246.—I.S. Law, I.T. Law & Serin, 2016: 117–118 (Upper Seletar Reservoir Park).— Fauzi et al., 2022: 2.

Gonyodactylus (formerly Cyrtodactylus ) quadrivirgatus —R. Subaraj et al., 1995: 4 (Sime Forest [SRF]).

Gonyodactylus (formerly Cyrtodactylus ) quadrivirgatus —K.P. Lim, 1995c: 18 (Cave Path [BTNR]; Lower Peirce Forest; Mandai Forest Track [NSSF]; Nee Soon Swamp Forest; Upper Peirce Reservoir Service Road [NSSF]; Upper Seletar Reservoir Park).

Cyrtodactylus majulah L.L. Grismer, Wood & K.K.P. Lim, 2012: 487–499 (Nee Soon Swamp Forest) .—N. Baker, 2014f: 331–332.—L.L. Grismer et al., 2014a: 437.—L.L. Grismer et al., 2014b: 384.—E.K. Chua, 2015c: 148.—M.A.H. Chua, 2015: 60.— Groenewoud, 2015b: 42 (Upper Seletar Forest [USNF]).—Riyanto et al., 2015: 117.—I.S. Law, I.T. Law & Serin, 2016: 117.—I.S. Law et al., 2017: 77 (Admiralty Park).—L.L. Grismer & Davis, 2018: 367, 372.—R.C.H. Teo & Thomas, 2019: 147, 156, 180 (Bukit Timah Nature Reserve).— Leo et al., 2020: 257.—Figueroa & I.S. Law, 2021: 1, 2, 4.—E. Goh & I.T. Law, 2021: 1 (Upper Seletar Reservoir Park).— Kaatz et al., 2021: 380.— Janssen & Sy, 2022: 70, 156.

“ Cyrtodactylus ” —P.K.L. Ng et al., 2011: 323.

Remarks. Prior to being described as a new species, C. majulah was known in Singapore as C. quadrivirgatus (see Grismer et al. 2012). However, more recent findings revealed that C. quadrivirgatus does occur sympatrically with C. majulah in Singapore (Law et al. 2016; Figueroa & Law 2021). Cyrtodactylus majulah was first reported from Singapore by Sworder (1925) who told of a specimen caught by Chasen’s cat at SBG. However, the earliest specimen from Singapore is NMW-16535 which was collected by an unknown collector prior to 1870. Cyrtodactylus majulah was not reported again for 64 years when one was detected at SRF on 12 December 1989 and two were observed at NSSF on 31 December 1989 ( Lim 1989h), despite there being one specimen from 1956 at BPBM and two from 1959 at FMNH. Following this rediscovery, C. majulah was frequently reported in the literature, primarily from around CCNR except for one record from BTNR (Teo & Rajathurai 1997). Strangely, the BTNR record was actually a species from southern Johor Bahru, Malaysia (whose identity is unknown) that was declared to have hitch-hiked into Singapore (Teo & Rajathurai 1997). This led Grismer et al. (2012) to believe that C. majulah was restricted to CCNR, and that this unidentified BTNR individual and that ‘ C. quadrivirgatus ’ recorded from Pulau Tekong in 2006 ( Lim et al. 2016) were different species. The Pulau Tekong population has since been ascribed to C. pantiensis ( Lim et al. 2016) , and C. majulah has since been found at BTNR (Lim 1995c; Teo & Thomas 2019) and DFNP ( Fig. 12A ). Moreover, a disjunct population was discovered at Admiralty Park when three individuals were found on 3 May 2017 ( Law 2017). Subsequently, another individual was found there on 13 August 2018 (A. Figueroa pers. obs.), and C. majulah appears to share this area with C. quadrivirgatus which was found at Admiralty Park on 14 August 2020 ( Figueroa & Law 2021).

Occurrence. Restricted to CNR, surrounding Nature Parks and forests, and Admiralty Park. Uncommon.

Singapore conservation status. Vulnerable.

Conservation priority. Highest.

IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2021].

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Botanic Gardens : ZRC.2.1133 (1926); Nee Soon Swamp Forest : BMNH 1974.3802 (no date) ; ZRC.2.2552 (31-Dec-1989) , ZRC.2.3190 (14-Nov-1990) , ZRC.2.3205 (23-Nov-1990) , ZRC.2.3261 (01-Jan-1991) , ZRC.2.4576 (27-Feb-1999) , ZRC.2.6796 (02-Jan-2009) , ZRC.2.6950– ZRC.2.6953 (22-Jun-2011) ; Upper Peirce Reservoir : ZRC.2.3283– ZRC.2.3284 (24-Oct-1991) ; Upper Seletar Reservoir [ USRP] : ZRC.2.4862 (05-Jan-2001) , ZRC.2.5643 (15-Mar-2003) .

Additional Singapore museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): FMNH, NMW; Nee Soon Rifle Range [= NSSF]: BPBM.

Singapore localities. Admiralty Park—Bukit Timah Nature Reserve—Dairy Farm Nature Park—Lower Peirce Forest—Mandai Range Forest—Nee Soon Swamp Forest—Sime Road Forest—Singapore Botanic Gardens*—Upper Peirce West Forest—Upper Seletar (not specified)—Upper Seletar North Forest—Upper Seletar Reservoir Park.

Figures

FIGURE 12. A) Cyrtodactylus majulah, B) Cyrtodactylus pantiensis, C) Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus, D) Cyrtodactylus semenanjungensis, E) Gehyra mutilata, F) Gekko browni, G) Gekko gecko, and H) Gekko horsfieldii. Photographs by: Alex Figueroa [A, C, G], Tan Heok Hui [B], Nick Baker [D], and Kelvin K.P. Lim [E–F, H].