Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis Bauer & Das, 1998

Grismer, Lee, Wood, Perry L., Anuar, Shahrul, Riyanto, Awal, Ahmad, Norhayati, Muin, Mohd A., Sumontha, Montri, Grismer, Jesse L., Onn, Chan Kin, Quah, Evan S. H. & Pauwels, Olivier S. A., 2014, Systematics and natural history of Southeast Asian Rock Geckos (genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887) with descriptions of eight new species from Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, Zootaxa 3880 (1), pp. 1-147 : 40-42

Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis Bauer & Das, 1998

Chanthaburi Rock Gecko

Fig. 15

Cnemaspis sp. A Dring 1979:220

Holotype. FMNH 215979 . Type locality: “ Khao Soi Daow ( Dao ) Wildlife Sanctuary , Pongnomron (Pong Nam Ron), Chanthaburi Province, Thailand (approximately) 13°00’N, 102°05’E)” at 100 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 42.2 mm; 8–10 supralabials; 7–10 infralabials; smooth ventral scales; 6–9 contiguous pore-bearing precloacal scales with elongate or round pores; 21–25 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles linearly arranged; caudal tubercles not restricted to a single paravertebral row nor encircling tail; tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; lateral row of tubercles present; subcaudals smooth, median row of scales ranging from not enlarged to weakly enlarged or only weakly enlarged posteriorly only; 1–3 postcloacal tubercles on each side; no enlarged femoral, subtibial or submetatarsal scales on first toe; subtibials smooth to weakly keeled; 22–29 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; in males gular region, throat, abdomen, and subcaudal region orange (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 15 ). Ground color of top of head and rostrum yellowish; ground color yellowish dorsally on body, grayish on flank transitioning to orangish on tail; dorsum bearing alternating distinct light and smaller indistinct dark vertebral and paravertebral markings; light vertebral markings sometimes fused to form an irregularly shaped stripe; light markings form yellowish caudal bands; limbs bearing cream colored bands alternating with small, irregularly shaped black markings; chin, abdomen, and subcaudal region usually orange.

Distribution. Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis is known from Khao Soi Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, Pong Nam Ron District, Chanthaburi Province; Khao Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Chon Buri Province; Khao Kitchakoot National Park, Chanthaburi Province; Khao Wong, Rayong Province; and Suan Kaset, Muang District and Namtok Pliieu, Chanthaburi Province in southeastern Thailand and from the base of Phnom Samkos, Phnom Dalai, and O’Som in the Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary of the Cardamom Mountains in southwestern Cambodia ( Bauer & Das 1998; Grismer et al. 2008c,d; Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis is a small, secretive species restricted to hilly primary forests ( Fig. 16 ) and ranges from near sea level to at least 968 m in elevation ( Grismer et al. 2008d; Neang et al. 2010). Unlike most other species of Cnemaspis , C. chanthaburiensis is terrestrial and lizards are commonly found during the day inactive beneath and within logs and beneath loose bark on the forest floor ( Neang et al. 2010). On two occasions we have even collected specimens from the fly covers of our tents ( Grismer et al. 2008d). We have found gravid females carrying two eggs during August.

Relationships. Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis is the basal lineage of the chanthaburiensis group ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Thailand: Chanthaburi Province, Pongnomron (Pong Nam Ron) District , Khao Soi Daouw (Dao) Wildlife Sanctuary, FMNH 215979 (holotype) and FMNH 191479 (paratype) ; Chantaburi Province, BMNH 1917.5 .14.4 (paratype); Chon Buri Province, Khao Khiew (Khieo) Wildlife Sanctuary, FMNH 215978 (paratype) ; Chantaburi Province, Suan Kaset, Muang District , FMNH 215980 (paratype) . Material examined since Grismer et al. (2010): Cambodia: Phnom Samkos, Pursat Province, Cardamom Mountains LSUHC 7882 , Phnom Dalai 9337–38, near O’Som LSUHC 10110–11 . Thailand: Chantaburi Province, Khao Khitchakut NP LSUHC 9507–08 .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum-likelihood phylogram (–InL 73957.608688) of the species of the genus Cnemaspis with Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) and maximum-likelihood (ML) bootstrap values, respectively based on the concatenated 3 gene dataset. Black circles are nodes supported by BBP and ML values greater than 0.95 and 70, respectively. Gray circles are nodes supported only by ML values greater than 70. White circles are nodes supported only by BPP values greater than 0.95. The distribution maps on the right delimit the ranges of the four major clades.

FIGURE 3. Distribution of the species and species groups in the Ca Mau and Northern Sunda clades. Stars indicate type localities.

FIGURE 15. Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis from the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, Pursat Province, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. Upper left and right: adult males (LSUDPC 5056 and 5054, respectively) from Phnom Dalai in the dark and light color pattern phases, respectively. Lower left: subadult male (LSUDPC 2875) from the base of Phnom Samkos. Photographs by LLG. Lower right: ventral view of adult male (LSUDPC 8539) from Khao Kitchakut, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand. Photograph by PLW.

FIGURE 16. Habitat of Cnemaspis chanthaburiensis at Phnom Dalai, Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, Pursat Province, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. Photograph by LLG.