Cnemaspis dringi Das & Bauer, 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 : 131-132

Cnemaspis dringi Das & Bauer, 1998

Dring’s Rock Gecko

Fig. 68

Holotype. FMNH 148588 . Type locality “ Labang Camp (03° 20'N; 113°29'E), Bintulu District , Fourth Division , Sarawak, East Malaysia, Borneo ” at approximately 30 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 46.4 mm; 11 supralabials; nine infralabials; keeled ventral scales; five or six discontinuous, pore-bearing, precloacal scales with round pores; 25–27 paravertebral tubercles; body tubercles randomly arranged, absent from flanks; tubercles absent from lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral row of caudal tubercles; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; caudal tubercles do not encircle tail; subcaudals keeled; enlarged median row of subcaudals present; two postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral, subtibial or submetatarsal scales; subtibials keeled; 32–35 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; distinct, whitish spots on a dark flank (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 68 ). Dorsal ground color pale brown overlain with a vertebral series of irregularly shaped, light-colored markings flanked by a linear, dark, paravertebral series of markings extending from nape to beyond base of tail; two dark-brown, postorbital stripes extending to ear opening; upper surface of limbs bearing dark bands; ventral surfaces pale-brown with scattered clusters of off-white scales, manifesting a very weakly mottled appearance; flanks dark-brown bearing distinct, whitish spots of varying size.

Distribution. Cnemaspis dringi is known only from Labang Camp, Bintulu District, Fourth Division and Sungai Segaham, Belaga District, Seventh Division, Sarawak, East Malaysia ( Das & Bauer 1998; Fig. 4 ).

Natural history. According to Das and Bauer (1998), the only known aspect of this species’ natural history is that the paratype from Sungai Segaham was taken from a log.

Relationships. The distribution of Cnemaspis dringi in East Malaysia would suggest it belongs within the Southern Sunda clade ( Fig. 4 ). Having precloacal pores like all species of the nigridia group of East Malaysia differentiates C. dringi from all species in the kendallii group as well as C. limi . Like all species of the nigridia group, C. dringi lacks tubercles encircling the tail, which further separates it from the kendallii group. These data (Tables 6,7) would suggest that C. dringi is most closely related to the East Malaysian nigridia group.

Material examined. Malaysia: Sarawak, Fourth Division , Bintulu District , Labang Camp FMNH 148588 ; seventh Division , Belaga District FMNH 221478 . These specimens represent the type series .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Distribution of the species in the Pattani and Southern Sunda clades. Stars indicate type localities.

FIGURE 68. Type series of Cnemaspis dringi from Sarawak, East Malaysia. Upper: adult male (FMNH 148588; upper) from Fourth Division, Bintulu District, Labang Camp and adult male (FMNH 221478: lower) from seventh Division, Belaga District. Lower: FMNH 221448 showing diagnostic spotting on flank.