Cyrtodactylus tebuensis, Grismer, L. Lee, Anuar, Shahrul, Muin, Mohd Abdul, Quah, Evan S. H. & Wood, Perry L., 2013

Grismer, L. Lee, Anuar, Shahrul, Muin, Mohd Abdul, Quah, Evan S. H. & Wood, Perry L., 2013, Phylogenetic relationships and description of a new upland species of Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) of the C. sworderi complex from northeastern Peninsular Malaysia, Zootaxa 3616 (3), pp. 239-252 : 245-249

Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov.

Tebu Mountain Bent-toed Gecko (Figs. 2,3,4)

Holotype. Adult male (ZRC 2.6997) from Gunung Tebu, Terengganu, Malaysia (05°36.11’ N 102°36.19’ E; 650 m) collected by Shahrul Anuar and M. Yusof on 2 September 2012.

Paratypes. All paratypes are from the same locality as the holotype. Subadult males ZRC 2.6998-6999 were collected on 31 August 2012 by Shahrul Anuar, Mohd. A. Muin, E. Quah, L. Grismer, B. Beltran, A. Cobos, A. Alonso, C. Thompson, and C. Ogle. Adult male LSUHC 10902 and adult female LSUHC 10903 were collected on the same date as the holotype by E. Quah, L. Grismer, B. Beltran, A. Cobos, A. Alonso, C. Thompson, and C. Ogle.

Diagnosis. Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from all other Sundaland species by having the following suite of character states: 73.1–84.1 mm adult SVL; large, conical, keeled body tubercles; tubercles present on top of head, occiput, nape, and limbs and extend posteriorly beyond base of tail; 43–51 ventral scales; no transversely enlrarged, median subcaudal scales; proximal subdigital lamellae transversely expanded; 17–21 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; abrupt transition between posterior and ventral femoral scales; enlarged femoral scales; no femoral or precloacal pores; precloacal groove absent; and body bearing four wide, bold, dark brown stripes (lateral stripe on each flank and a pair of paravertebral stripes). The meristic characters are scored against C. sworderi and C. quadrivirgatus in Table 4 and against all other Sundaland species in Grismer et al. (2012b: Table 4 ).

Description. Adult male SVL 79.1; head large moderate in length (HL/SVL 0.27) and width (HW/HL 0.63), somewhat depressed (HD/HL 0.41), distinct from neck, and triangular in dorsal profile; lores weakly inflated, prefrontal region slightly concave; canthus rostralis smoothly rounded; snout elongate (ES/HL 0.43) and rounded in dorsal profile; eye large (ED/HL 0.25); ear opening elliptical and small (EL/HL 0.06); eye-to-ear distance greater than diameter of eye; rostral subrectangular with a deep dorsomedial furrow containing a postrostral; rostral partially divided dorsally, bordered posteriorly by large left and right supranasals and one medial postrostrals (=internasal); external nares bordered anteriorly by rostral, dorsally by two supranasals (anterior one largest), posteriorly by five postnasals and ventrally by first supralabial; 11 (R, L) square supralabial scales extending to and tapering smoothly below posterior margin of orbit; 10,9 (R, L) infralabial scales tapering smoothly posteriorly to below posterior margin of orbit; scales of rostrum, lores, top of head, and occiput small and granular; scales on top of head and occiput intermixed with slightly enlarged tubercles; dorsal and ventral superciliaries rectangular; mental triangular, bordered laterally by first infralabial and posteriorly by left and right rectangular postmentals contacting medially for approximately 50% of their length posterior to mental; one enlarged row of sublabials extending posteriorly to 4–6th infralabial; gular scales small and raised, grading posteriorly into slightly larger, flatter, throat scales, and thence into large, flat, imbricate pectoral and ventral scales.

Body relatively short (AG/SVL 0.45) with weak, tuberculate ventrolateral folds; dorsal scales small and granular, interspersed with large, conical, regularly arranged, keeled tubercles; tubercles extending from top of head between eyes to anterior one-fifth of tail; tubercles on top of head, occiput, and nape relatively small, those on body largest; approximately 22 longitudinal rows of dorsal tubercles and 34 paravertebral tubercles; 44 flat, imbricate ventrals, ventrals much larger than dorsals; slightly enlarged patch of precloacal scales lacking pores; precloacal groove absent ( Fig. 2 ).

Forelimbs moderate in stature, relatively short (FL/SVL 0.15); granular scales of forearm larger than those of body and interspersed with tubercles; palmar scales rounded; digits well-developed, inflected at basal interphalangeal joints; subdigital lamellae slightly enlarged proximal to joint inflections, digits narrower distal to joints; claws well-developed, sheathed by a dorsal and ventral scale.

Hind limbs more robust than forelimbs, moderate in length (TBL/SVL 0.18), covered dorsally by granular scales interspersed with larger tubercles and anteriorly by granular scales; ventral scales of femora flat and larger than dorsals; ventral tibial scales flat and imbricate; a single row of enlarged femoral scales extend from just proximal to the knee medially making contact with the large precloacal scales; femoral pores absent; dorsal and ventral femoral scales meeting abruptly on posteroventral margin of thigh; plantar scales low and slightly rounded; digits well-developed, inflected at basal interphalangeal joints; subdigital lamellae enlarged proximal to inflected joints, digits narrower distal to joints; 17 subdigital lamellae on right 4th toe; claws well-developed, sheathed by a dorsal and ventral scale.

Original tail widest at base, tapering to a point; dorsal scales on base of tail granular, becoming flatter posteriorly; no median row of transversely enlarged subcaudal scales; caudal scales arranged in semi-whorls; two enlarged tubercles at base of tail; base of tail with lateral, bulbous swellings in male; all postcloacal scales moderately sized, flat, and imbricate.

Coloration in life ( Fig. 3 ). Ground color of head, body, limbs and anterior portion of tail pale yellow; snout, top of head and eyes bearing light brown mottling; body bearing a wide, dark brown lateral stripe on each flank and a pair of dark brown paravertebral stripes beginning at the posterior margin of the eyes and extending posteriorly to the base of the tail; a longitudinal series of yellow spots occurs ventral to the dark lateral stripes; paired, dark brown triangular markings present on the nape followed by a dark brown, azygous irregularly shaped marking; brown irregularly shaped markings on limbs; 12 wide, dark brown to black caudal bands, anterior three bands irregularly shaped; five yellowish caudal bands anteriorly and seven white caudal bands posteriorly; all caudal bands encircle tail; anterior four yellowish bands contain dark blotching; all ventral surfaces beige except for soles of hands and feet and subcaudal region which are slightly darker; a small, single dark spot occurs in all ventral scales except those of tail.

Variation. The paratypes very closely resemble the holotype in all aspects of coloration ( Fig. 4 ). ZRC 2.6999 has more evenly edged lateral stripes than the holotype but the nape markings are more irregularly shaped as opposed to being triangular. The dark stripes in LSUHC 10903 are considerably more crenulated and the paravertebral stripes even make contact at various places. Meristc variation is presented in Table 5 .

Distribution. Currently Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov. is known only from the type locality of Gunung Tebu, Terengganu, Malaysia ( Fig. 1 ). It is expected to range more widely throughout the range of mountains of which Gunung Tebu is a part.

Natural history. All specimens were found active at night in primary hill dipterocarp forest ( Fig. 5 ) on vegetation from 1.5–2 m above the ground including thin horizontal branches and the trunks of trees with their head facing towards as has been reported for their closest relative C. sworderi (Grismer et al. 2007) . Syntopic with this species is C. quadrivirgatus . LSUHC 10903 was a gravid female carrying two eggs.

Etymology. The specific epithet tebuensis refers to Gunung Tebu (Cane Mountain), in which the type locality is situated.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Location of Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov. at Gunung Tebu, Terengganu and distribution of C. sworderi (Grismer 2011; Grismer et al. 2007).

FIGURE 2. Inferred phylogenetic relationships of the Cyrtodactylys sworderi complex based on 1502 bp of the mitochondrial ND 2 gene. The tree is a Maximum Likelihood topology (lnL 12919.286678) with Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP), Maximum Likelihood bootstrap support values (ML), and Maximum Parsimony bootstrap support values (MP), respectively, at the nodes.

FIGURE 3. Holotype (ZRC 2.6997) of Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov.

FIGURE 4. Upper left: subadult male Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov. (paratype ZRC 2.6998). Upper right: adult female C. tebuensis sp. nov. (paratype LSUHC 10903). Lower left: subadult male C. tebuensis sp. nov. (paratype ZRC 2.6999). Lower right: adult female C. quadrivirgatus (LSUHC 10853) found syntopically with C. tebuensis sp. nov.

FIGURE 5. Left: microhabitat in hill dipterocarp forest near the type locality of Cytrodactylus tebuensis sp. nov. Right: Trail along which the type series of C. tebuensis sp. nov. and C. quadrivirgatus were collected.

Tables

TABLE 5. Morphological characters of the type series of the Cyrtodactylus tebuensis sp. nov .. m = male; f = female; n = no; y = yes; / = data unavailable.

	ZRC	ZRC	ZRC	LSUHC	LSUHC
	2.6999 paratype	2.6998 paratype	2.6997 holotype	10902 paratype	10903 paratype
sex supralabials infralabials	m 12 9	m 13 9	m 11 9	m 12 8	f 11 10