@article {108398, title = {Three new cryptic species of South Asian Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Karnataka, India}, journal = {VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY }, volume = {72}, year = {2022}, month = {03/2022}, pages = {115-142}, abstract = {

We describe three new small-bodied, cryptic species of south Asian Cnemaspis belonging to the mysoriensis and goaensis clades from the Mysore Plateau and the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in Karnataka, peninsular India; and provide a key to mem-bers of each clade, besides providing the first ND2 sequence data for C. ranganaensis. Cnemaspis tigris sp. nov. from Kaiwara in Karnataka is a member of the mysoriensis clade and can be morphologically distinguished from all six described members of the clade in a number of meristic characters and subtle differences in colouration, beside \>= 12.1-23.4 \% uncorrected pairwise ND2 sequence divergence. Cnemaspis sakleshpurensis sp. nov. from Sakleshpur and C. vijayae sp. nov. from Coorg, both in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, are members of the goaensis clade and are easily diagnosed from all three described members of the clade in meristic characters beside 5.2-14.8 \% divergence from described members of the clade and 14.6 \% from each other in uncorrected pairwise ND2 sequence divergence. The discovery of these new species from two different clades and biogeographic regions is not surprising, given the steep rise in the number of species of Cnemaspis known from peninsular India. Comprehensive geographic sampling in conjunction with molecular and morphological data is essential to understand the true diversity and distributional ranges of species within this ancient clade of gekkonid lizards.

}, doi = {10.3897/vz.72.e76308}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Agarwal, Ishan} } @article {94385, title = {Anew medium-sized rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) of the C. bangara clade from granite boulder habitats in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, India}, journal = {ZOOTAXA}, volume = {4969}, year = {2021}, month = {05/2021}, pages = {351-366}, abstract = {

We describe a new species of the Cnemaspis bangara clade from a rocky hillock near Kugai Periya Mariamman Temple, Krishnagiri fort, Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu, India. Cnemaspis krishnagiriensis sp. nov. can be diagnosed from all other peninsular Indian congeners by its medium body size (maximum SVL 40 mm), heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis, spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; presence of four femoral pores on each thigh separated on either side by nine or 10 poreless scales from three continuous precloacal pores in males; tail with enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles forming four whorls on anterior portion, six tubercles in first whorl, four tubercles in second to fourth whorls, enlarged tubercles restricted to only paravertebral region on rest of the tail; median row of sub-caudals smooth and distinctly enlarged, and a unique colour pattern. The new species can be diagnosed from members of C. bangara clade by the number of dorsal tubercles rows at mid-body, the number of enlarged tubercles in paravertebral rows, the number of ventral scales across belly at mid-body, the number longitudinal ventral scales from mental to cloaca, the number of femoral and precloacal pores and poreless scales separating these series, and subtle colour pattern differences; besides 9.2-17.6 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. Cnemaspis krishnagiriensis sp. nov. is the fourth member of the recently described bangara clade and is the first that is known to be distributed \<900 m asl.. The discovery of yet another endemic species of Cnemaspis from lower elevations of the Mysore Plateau once again highlights the need of dedicated systematic sampling to uncover the true diversity of Cnemaspis. We also address a nomenclatural issue related to the recently described Cnemaspis stellapulvis Khandekar, Thackeray \& Agarwal.

}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4969.2.7}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Thackeray, Tejas and Khandekar, Akshay} } @article {95319, title = {A new medium-sized rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) of the C. bangara clade from granite boulder habitats in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4969}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 May 11}, pages = {351366}, abstract = {

We describe a new species of the Cnemaspis bangara clade from a rocky hillock near Kugai Periya Mariamman Temple, Krishnagiri fort, Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu, India. Cnemaspis krishnagiriensis sp. nov. can be diagnosed from all other peninsular Indian congeners by its medium body size (maximum SVL 40 mm), heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis, spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; presence of four femoral pores on each thigh separated on either side by nine or 10 poreless scales from three continuous precloacal pores in males; tail with enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles forming four whorls on anterior portion, six tubercles in first whorl, four tubercles in second to fourth whorls, enlarged tubercles restricted to only paravertebral region on rest of the tail; median row of sub-caudals smooth and distinctly enlarged, and a unique colour pattern. The new species can be diagnosed from members of C. bangara clade by the number of dorsal tubercles rows at mid-body, the number of enlarged tubercles in paravertebral rows, the number of ventral scales across belly at mid-body, the number longitudinal ventral scales from mental to cloaca, the number of femoral and precloacal pores and poreless scales separating these series, and subtle colour pattern differences; besides 9.217.6 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. Cnemaspis krishnagiriensis sp. nov. is the fourth member of the recently described bangara clade and is the first that is known to be distributed \<900 m asl.. The discovery of yet another endemic species of Cnemaspis from lower elevations of the Mysore Plateau once again highlights the need of dedicated systematic sampling to uncover the true diversity of Cnemaspis. We also address a nomenclatural issue related to the recently described Cnemaspis stellapulvis Khandekar, Thackeray Agarwal.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4969.2.7}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Thackeray, Tejas and Khandekar, Akshay} } @article {92879, title = {A new small-bodied, polymorphic emCnemaspis/em Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) allied to emC. monticola/em Manamendra-Arachchi, Batuwita amp; Pethiyagoda, 2007 from the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4950}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Mar 31}, pages = {zootaxa.4950.3.5}, abstract = {

We describe a new small-bodied, polymorphic Cnemaspis from near Hongadahalla village, Sakleshpur in the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Cnemaspis schalleri sp. nov. is allied to C. monticola and can be diagnosed from all other Indian Cnemaspis by its small body size; presence of spine-like tubercles on flank; heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis; presence of both precloacal and femoral pores in males; dorsal pholidosis of tail heterogeneous, composed of small, weakly keeled, flattened, sub-imbricate scales intermixed with enlarged, strongly keeled, distinctly pointed, conical tubercles forming whorls; slightly enlarged median row of sub-caudal scales, smooth at anterior half and strongly keeled posteriorly. The new species differs from C. monticola based on the number of dorsal tubercle rows at mid-body, the number of paravertebral tubercles, the number of precloacal pores and poreless scales between precloacal and femoral pores; besides 8.9-10.7 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. We also provide the first description of topotypic males of C. monticola along with the first data on live colouration and natural history. Cnemaspis schalleri sp. nov. is the second new Cnemaspis described from around Sakleshpur within a span of less than a year with minimal field survey effort. It is almost certain than the dedicated systematic sampling across the Central Western Ghats will result in the discovery of many undescribed Cnemaspis lineages.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4950.3.5}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Agarwal, Ishan} } @article {82949, title = {Geckos in the granite: two new geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from rocky, scrub habitats in Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India}, journal = {ZOOTAXA}, volume = {4838}, year = {2020}, month = {08/2020}, pages = {451-474}, abstract = {

Two new species of geckos from the genera Cnemaspis and Hemidactylus are described from a granite outcrop in the Rishi Valley, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Cnemaspis rishivalleyensis sp. nov. and Hemidactylus rishivalleyensis sp. nov. are presently known only from their type locality and am 8.7 \% and 10.9 \% divergent from their closest known sister species, respectively. The new species are allied to the mysoriensis and murrayi clades of South Asian Cnemaspis and the bmokii group of Indian Hemidactylus, respectively. The two new species can be diagnosed from regional congeners by the number and arrangement of femoral and precloacal pores and poreless scales separating these series, body size, the number of tubercles in paravertebral rows, the number of enlarged tubercles around mid-body, the number of ventral scales across mid-body, the number of lamellae beneath digit IV of pes and manus, and subtle differences in colour pattern. Four endemic geckos now have their type localities within 10 km of each other, Cnemaspis graniticola and Cyrtodactylus rishivalleyensis from Horsley Hills and the two new species from Rishi Valley. The two new species are also the third endemic species each of Cnemaspis and Hemidactylus from Andhra Pradesh.

}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4838.4.1}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Thackeray, Tejas and Khandekar, Akshay} } @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 {83044, title = {A new cryptic Cnemaspis Strauch (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from an isolated granite hill on the Mysore Plateau, Karnataka, India}, journal = {ZOOTAXA}, volume = {4845}, year = {2020}, month = {09/2020}, pages = {509-528}, abstract = {

We describe a cryptic new species of the Cnemaspis mysoriensis complex from an isolated rocky hillock near Yadiyur, Mandya District of south Karnataka, India. Cnemaspis siellapulvis sp. nov. can be diagnosed from all other peninsular Indian congeners by its small body size (SVL \<32 mm), presence of spine-like tubercles on the flanks, heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis, two or three femoral pores on each thigh separated on either side by eight poitless scales from a continuous series of two precloacal pores in males, tail with enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles forming whorls, median row of sub-caudals smooth and slightly enlarged, and a distinct colour pattern. The new species can be diagnosed from members of C mysoriensis Glade by the number of femoral and precloacal pores and number of poreless scales separating these series, the number of dorsal tubercles rows at mid-body, the number of ventral scales across the belly at mid-body and subtle colour pattern differences; besides 13.4-21.4 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. In this paper, we define the Cnemaspis mysoriensis Glade and provide a diagnosis and comparison against peninsular Indian congeners. We also provide major diagnostic characters for members of the C. mysoriensis Glade. The discovery of yet another endemic species of Cnemaspis from one of the many isolated granite rocky hills on Mysore Plateau highlights the possibilities of presence of many more cryptic undescribed species.

}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4845.4.3}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Agarwal, Ishan} } @article {84065, title = {A new large-bodied, rupicolous Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) allied to Cnemaspis heteropholis Bauer, 2002 from the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4801}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jun 17}, pages = {zootaxa.4801.1.2}, abstract = {

We describe a new large-bodied, rupicolous Cnemaspis from near Sakleshpur in the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Cnemaspis magnifica sp. nov. is allied to C. heteropholis and can be diagnosed from all other Indian Cnemaspis by the absence of spine-like scales on flank; heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis, presence of only femoral pores in males, homogenous dorsal pholidosis of tail with small, smooth, regularly arranged, flattened, subimbricate scales, without whorls of enlarged tubercles, median row of sub-caudals enlarged and smooth. The new species differs from its closest congener C. heteropholis in body size, the number of longitudinal ventral scales, number of lamellae under digit I and IV of manus and pes, and subtle colour pattern differences; besides 9.1 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. We provide the first description of topotypic male of C. heteropholis along with data on its distribution and natural history. The discovery of Cnemaspis magnifica sp. nov. with minimal field survey effort indicates the need for further herpetological exploration in the region.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4801.1.2}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Pal, Saunak and Agarwal, Ishan} } @article {83744, title = {A new medium-bodied rupicolous Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Sirumalai massif, Tamil Nadu, India}, journal = {ZOOTAXA}, volume = {4852}, year = {2020}, month = {09/2020}, pages = {83-100}, abstract = {

We describe a new species of the Hemidactylus acanthopholis clade from Sirumalai, an isolated massif in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu state, India. Hemidactylus sirumalaiensis sp. nov. can be diagnosed from all members of the prashadi group by its medium body size (SVL \<95 mm), the number of dorsal tubercles rows at mid-body, the number of enlarged tubercles in paravertebral rows, the number of femoral pores and poreless scales between series of left and right femoral pores on the femoral-precloacal row in males, the number of ventral scales across the belly at mid-body and subtle colour pattern differences. The new species is the fourth member of the acanthopholis clade and 8.5-13.4 \% divergent in ND2 sequence data from other members of the clade. We also provide data on additional specimens from a new locality of Hemidactylus kolliensis, previously known only from the male holotype. Hemidactylus sirumalaiensis sp. nov. is the first endemic and only the other vertebrate species described from Sirumalai massif in the last 133 years. Most rupicolous Hemidactylus species from peninsular India outside the Western Ghats are known only from a few localities and are likely to be geographically restricted in distribution, and large areas of suitable habitat remain unsurveyed, suggesting many more allied species remain to be discovered.

}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4852.1.4}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Pawar, Swapnil and Agarwal, Ishan} } @article {67824, title = {Two more new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4656}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Aug 13}, pages = {zootaxa.4656.1.2}, abstract = {

We describe two new species of the gekkonid genus Cnemaspis from the northern Western Ghats in Maharashtra, India. Cnemaspis amba sp. nov. and C. koynaensis sp. nov. are members of the C. girii clade and differ genetically from each other and other members of the clade by -7.9-19.6 \% uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence. The two new species are also morphologically distinguishable from all regional congeners on the basis of condition of spine-like scales on flanks, heterogeneity of dorsal pholidosis, number of dorsal tubercle rows, number of tubercles in paravertebral rows, femoral pores, number of poreless scales between femoral pores in the precloacal-femoral scale row, and keeling and size of sub-caudal scales. Cnemaspis amba sp. nov. differs from C. koynaensis sp. nov. in lacking\  spine-like scales on flanks and in the number of longitudinal ventral scales and\  ventral scales across mid-body. Both species are known only from their mid-elevation (~800 m asl.) type localities. Discovery of two new species increases the total species of Northern Western Ghats (NWG) Cnemaspis to ten. Specific status of numerous genetically divergent lineages needs to be evaluated and it is likely that many more species remain to be discovered from the poorly explored NWG, which are typically considered low in species diversity relative to more southern regions. We also provide a table describing major diagnostic characters across all NWG Cnemaspis species and corrected type locality data for three recently named species-Cnemaspis ajijae, C. limayei and C. mahabali.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4656.1.2}, author = {Khandekar, Akshay and Thackeray, Tejas and Agarwal, Ishan} }