Wednesday, December 6, 2017

[Herpetology • 2017] Cyrtodactylus gialaiensis • A New Species of the Cyrtodactylus irregularis complex (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Gia Lai Province, Central Highlands of Vietnam


 Cyrtodactylus gialaiensis
Luu, Dung, Nguyen, Le & Ziegler, 2017


Abstract

We describe a new species of the genus Cyrtodactylus from Gia Lai Province, Central Highlands of Vietnam based on morphological and molecular differences. Cyrtodactylus gialaiensis sp. nov. is differentiated from other congeners by a unique combination of the following characters: Size small, maximum known SVL reaching 62.8 mm; dorsal pattern consisting of six or seven dark transverse bands between limb insertions; intersupranasals two or three; dorsal tubercles at midbody in 16–21 irregular rows, strongly developed on flanks; lateral folds poorly defined with interspersed tubercles; ventral scales between ventrolateral folds 38–45; precloacal pores nine or 10 in males, eight pitted scales in the adult female, in a continuous row; femoral pores absent; enlarged femoral scales present; postcloacal tubercles two or three; dorsal tubercles present to half of tail; subcaudal scales not enlarged. In molecular analyses, the new species is weakly supported as a member of the Cyrtodactylus irregularis species group with a minimum pairwise genetic distance of 13.7% from others within the group.

Keywords: Reptilia, Cyrtodactylus gialaiensis sp. nov., morphology, phylogeny, taxonomy




Vinh Quang Luu, Tran Van Dung, Truong Quang Nguyen, Minh Duc Le and Thomas Ziegler. 2017. A New Species of the Cyrtodactylus irregularis complex (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Gia Lai Province, Central Highlands of Vietnam. Zootaxa. 4362(3); 385–404.  OI:  10.11646/zootaxa.4362.3.4