@article {123119, title = {A multitude of spots! Five new microendemic species of the Cnemaspis gracilis group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from massifs in the Shevaroy landscape, Tamil Nadu, India}, journal = {Vertebrate Zoology}, volume = {72}, year = {2022}, month = {12/2022}, pages = {1137-1186}, abstract = {

South Asian Cnemaspis are one of the most diverse clades of gekkonids in South Asia with their highest diversity in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. These geckos include only a few nocturnal species and are largely diurnal or cathemeral and restricted to relatively cool habitats. One of the prominently diurnal subgroups in South Asian Cnemaspis is the bangara clade, which includes six species distributed in southern India on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, the southern Eastern Ghats and Palghat Gap. In this paper, we describe five more species of the bangara clade from the Shevaroyan landscape, including three from Kollimalai and one each from Yercaud and Pachaimalai, all in Tamil Nadu. These new species show 4.6{\textendash}19.7 \% uncorrected sequence divergence on the mitochondrial ND2 gene from each other and known species of the bangara clade and are morphologically diagnosable in body size, the number of paravertebral tubercles between limb insertions, the number of dorsal tubercle rows, the number of ventral scale rows across the belly, the number of femoral and precloacal pores and poreless scales separating these series, and aspects of colouration. The discovery of these five new species adds to the growing discoveries of cool-adapted species in southern India outside the Western Ghats and highlights the role of sky-islands in diversification. The Shevaroyan landscape shows high levels of microendemism with eight species distributed in an area of \< 2000 km2, and all these species restricted to much smaller areas of actual distribution. With an area of \< 500 km2 respectively, the massif of Pachaimalai has a single endemic and the massifs of Yercaud and Kollimalai have three endemic Cnemaspis species each.

}, doi = {doi: 10.3897/vz.72.e94799 }, author = {Agarwal, I and Thackeray, T and Khandekar, A} } @article {77448, title = {Granite boulders act as deep-time climate refugia: A Miocene divergent clade of rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Mysore Plateau, India, with descriptions of three new species}, journal = {JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH}, year = {2020}, month = {05/2020}, abstract = {

We describe a divergent clade and three new rupicolous species of dwarf geckos of the genus Cnemaspis from the Mysore Plateau, southern India. Cnemaspis bangara sp. nov., C. graniticola sp. nov., and C. yelagiriensis sp. nov. differ from each other by 9\%-18\% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence and other South Asian Cnemaspis by 17\%-33\% and are morphologically distinguishable from all regional congeners and each other. The new species are known from only granite boulders in montane habitats (\>1,000 m asl.), just 60-120 km straight-line distance apart from each other. A fossil-calibrated timetree and ancestral area reconstructions indicate South Asian Cnemaspis originated in Western Ghats forests with initial divergence in the Paleocene-Eocene making it perhaps the oldest Indian squamate clade. Cnemaspis that occur in Peninsular India in the dry zone outside the Western Ghats form three independently derived clades that occur in significantly warmer and drier habitats than those in the Western Ghats. The discovery of a Miocene divergent clade from rocky hills on the southern edge of the Mysore Plateau reveals these habitats as novel, long-term climate refugia. This adds to the body of work revealing ancient origins of taxa in the Indian dry zone and supports the Mysore Plateau as an important and overlooked hot spot of lizard biodiversity.

}, doi = {10.1111/jzs.12391}, author = {Agarwal, I and Thackeray, Tejas and Pal, S and Khandekar, A} } @article {36266, title = {Two new species of bent toed geckos, Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Northeast India with comments on name-bearing types from the region }, journal = {ZOOTAXA}, volume = {4420 }, year = {2018}, month = {05/2018}, pages = {334-356}, abstract = {

Two new species of the genus Cyrtodactylus are described based on collections from Northeast India, and descriptions and diagnoses of previously described species and synonyms from the region are provided. One of the new species from lowland habitats in Tripura is medium sized, with a continuous series of precloacal pores, and is allied to C. ayeyarwadyensis from Myanmar; while the other new species from West Bengal is smaller, with both femoral and precloacal pores, and is related to C. gubernatoris from West Bengal and Sikkim. We designate a lectotype for Cyrtodactylus khasiensis and recognize the C. khasiensis synonym Gymnodactylus himalayicus as a valid species of Cyrtodactylus based on morphological evidence, and suggest the recognition of the last remaining subspecies of C. khasiensis, C. k. cayuensis, as a valid species based on geography and morphology. The stabilization of the taxa Cyrtodactylus khasiensis and C. gubernatoris with a limited subset of characters and specific distributional data, as well as the elevation of Cyrtodactylus himalayicus comb. nov. from synonymy, will allow the descriptions of many more Cyrtodactylus species from the region.

}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4420.3.2 }, author = {Agarwal, I and Mahony, S and Giri, VB and Chaitanya, R and Bauer, AM} } @article {36664, title = {Two new species of the Ophisops microlepis (Squamata: Lacertidae) complex from northwestern India with a key to Indian Ophisops }, journal = {JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY }, volume = {52}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {819-847 }, doi = {10.1080/00222933.2018.1436203 }, author = {Agarwal, I and Khandekar, A and Ramakrishnan, U and Vyas, R and Giri, VB} }