Cnemaspis siamensis ( Smith, 1925 )

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 : 49-51

Cnemaspis siamensis ( Smith, 1925)

Siam Rock Gecko

Fig. 22

Gonatodes siamensis Smith, M. A., 1925:21 .

Gonatodes kendallii Smith, M. A. 1916:151 . non Boulenger fide Taylor, 1963:740.

Gonatodes siamensis Smith, 1930:16 .

Holotype. BMNH 1946.8 .19.83. Type locality: “ Maprit , near Patiyu (= Pathio, Chumpon Province), Peninsular Siam [ Thailand]” at 10 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 39.7 mm; eight or nine supralabials; 6–8 infralabials; keeled ventral scales; no precloacal pores; 19–25 paravertebral tubercles; dorsal tubercles on body randomly arranged; tubercles on flanks; caudal tubercles not restricted to a single paravertebral row nor encircling tail; no tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles; lateral caudal tubercle row present; subcaudals keeled; median row of enlarged subcaudal scales present; one or two postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; subtibials keeled; no enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 24–26 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; gular region, throat, and pectoral region yellow in males; dark, longitudinally arranged spots in gular region (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern ( Fig. 22 ). Dorsal ground color gray to light brown overlain with short, dark, zig-zag, transverse bands on body countershaded with white markings; top of head and flanks mottled with light and dark irregularly shaped markings; limbs and tail bearing poorly defined dark bands; gular region, chest and posterior portion of original tail in males yellow; dark longitudinally arranged spots on a yellow gular region; belly and anterior portion of tail cream colored, immaculate; ventral surfaces of limbs gray.

Distribution. Cnemaspis siamensis ranges throughout the lowland, hilly regions east of the Tenasserim and Phuket Mountains from Kaeng Krachan National Park, Phetchaburi Province in the north, southward to Khao Mod, Surat Thani Province on the east coast and to Phuket Island, Phuket Province in the west ( Grismer et al. 2010a; Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Grismer et al. (2010a) stated that Cnemaspis siamensis is not a saxicolous, microhabitat specialist but a nocturnal, lowland, scansorial, forest-dwelling gecko that opportunistically utilizes rocky microhabitats when available. We have observed lizards at the type locality on both vegetation ( Fig. 22 ) and rocks.

Relationships. Cnemaspis siamensis is the sister species of C. huaseesom Grismer, Sumontha, Cota, Grismer, Wood, Pauwels & Kunya ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Thailand: Chumphon Province, Krom Luang District THNHM 0372; Pha To District, Ngao National Park THNHM 1086; Pathio LSUHC 9474, 9485, MCZ 39025; Kapoh Water Fall FMNH 215977. Phetchaburi Province, Muang District THNHM 1441–42, 1448–49. Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Pa-La-U, Kaeng Krachan National Park, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khiri Khan THNHM 1336–37; Thap Sakae District THNHM 2000. Surat Thani Province, Kanchanadit District MS16, Kaeng Krung National Park THNHM 1084.

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 22. Cnemaspis siamensis from Pathio, Chumpon Province, Thailand. Upper right: adult male (LSUDPC 5241) in the dark color pattern phase. Middle right: adult female (LSUDPC 5228) in the light color pattern phase. Lower right: ventral coloration of adult male (LSUDPC 5242). Left: microhabitat structure. Photographs by LLG.