Cnemaspis karsticola Grismer, Grismer, Wood & Chan, 2008b

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 : 63-64

Cnemaspis karsticola Grismer, Grismer, Wood & Chan, 2008b

Karst Rock Gecko

Fig. 31

Holotype. ZRC 2.6765 . Type locality: “ Gunung Reng , Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia (05°42.905 N, 101°44.726 E)” at 113 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 48.1 mm; seven or eight supralabials; six or seven infralabials; ventral scales keeled; seven or eight contiguous, pore-bearing precloacal scales with round pores; 17–19 paravertebral tubercles; body tubercles not linearly arranged, present on flanks; tubercles absent from lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; caudal tubercles not encircling tail; all subcaudals keeled, no enlarged median scale row; two or three postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; subtibials keeled; no submetatarsal scales on first toe; 27–30 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; subcaudal region white (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 31 ). Dorsal ground color yellowish brown; head and body overlain with faded, irregularly shaped, white markings; no dark, postorbital striping; three, dark, radiating, anteriorly projecting lines occur on occiput; paired, dark, paravertebral markings extend from nape to base of tail, similar markings on flanks; no transversely elongate, white markings on flanks; irregularly shaped, dark and light markings on limbs; diffuse, alternating, light markings on dorsal surface of tail; subcaudal region white, immaculate; regenerated portion of tail beige, immaculate.

Distribution. Cnemaspis karsticola is known from only from Gunung Reng, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia ( Grismer et al. 2008b).

Natural history. Grismer et al. (2008b) noted that Cnemaspis karsticola is a lowland saxicolous species known only from the karst outcropping of Gunung Reng, a large isolated tower karst formation reaching 200 m in height situated along the east bank of the Pergau River at its junction with Batu Melintang, Kelantan. The base of the tower is undercut and numerous cracks and indentations accentuate and define its periphery ( Fig. 31 ). Lizards were found during the day along the periphery of the karst formation and within cracks on the shaded surfaces of large, disconnected, karst boulders that have fragmented and fallen off the core. Lizards were not found deep within the larger cave system. Specimens were seen in cracks, on shaded overhangs, and on the cave walls no more than 2 m above the ground. No lizards were seen at night indicating this is a diurnal species. The color variation in the type series indicates this species is adept at substrate matching ( Grismer et al. 2008b).

Relationships. Cnemaspis karsticola is the sister species of C. perhentianensis Grismer & Chan ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Malaysia: Kelantan, Gunung Reng ZRC 2.6763 – 65 , LSUHC 9054 . Additional material examined since Grismer et al. (2008b): Malaysia: Kelantan, Gunung Reng LSUHC 9053 , 9055–56 .

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 31. Cnemaspis karsticola from Gunung Reng, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Upper left: adult female (LSUDPC 4424) in the dark color pattern phase. Upper right: adult male (LSUDPC 4421) in the dark color pattern phase. Lower; karst microhabitat at Gunung Reng. Photographs by LLG.