Cnemaspis boulengerii Strauch, 1887

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 : 23-24

Cnemaspis boulengerii Strauch, 1887

Boulenger’s Rock Gecko

Figs. 6 , 7

Gonatodes glaucus Smith 1920:95 (fide Smith 1935:76)

Cnemaspis boulengeri Smith 1935:76 ; Dring 1979:220; Darevsky 1990:128, 1999:34; Grismer et al., 2010b:46

Holotype. Unknown. Type locality: Pulo Condore Island in the South China Sea now Con Dao Island , Ba Ria-Vung Province, Vietnam (fide Sang et al. 2009).

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 69.0 mm; 8–10 supralabials; six or seven infralabials; smooth ventral scales; no precloacal pores; 32–38 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles linearly arranged especially on upper flanks; lateral caudal furrows absent, dorsal caudal furrow weak; caudal tubercles restricted to a single paravertebral row; subcaudals smooth, bearing a medial row of enlarged scales; one postcloacal tubercle on each side; smooth, enlarged, plate-like femoral and subtibial scales; enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 25–32 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; dorsal surfaces unicolor tan; large, subcircular black spots on shoulders and nape; and thin, yellow reticulation on side of neck (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern (Figs. 6,7). Dorsal ground color brown to yellowish; dorsum unicolor except for large, black spots on nape, side of neck, and shoulders and a series of elongate, light colored, diffuse, vertebral markings extending onto caudal region and occasionally forming a weak, vertebral stripe; thin, yellowish reticulum on lateral surfaces of neck and in shoulder regions; ventral surfaces beige, immaculate. Light-colored, vertebral markings in juveniles more prominent, often bearing the typical butterfly shape seen in other species of Cnemaspis . At night the ground color lightens considerably and becomes a dull-yellow.

Distribution. Cnemaspis boulengerii is known only from Con Son and Hon Bay Canh islands, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam of the Con Dao Archipelago, 185 km off the east coast of southern Vietnam ( Darevsky 1990, 1999; Grismer et al. 2010b; Fig. 3 ). It is expected that C. boulengerii occurs on other islands of the archipelago.

Natural history. The Con Dao Archipelago contains 16 islands with Con Son Island being the largest and centrally located. Con Son is elongate, hilly, and reaches nearly 570 m in elevation. Much of the low-lying areas of the island are covered in disturbed forest but the rocky, higher elevations of the interior remain fairly intact ( Fig. 7 ) and it is here we observed several specimens of Cnemaspis boulengerii . During the day, C. boulengerii is extremely abundant in lowland forest habitats and can be found climbing on both granite boulders and tree trunks in all planes of orientation. Many lizards were observed basking in dappled light on the tops of boulders and on tree trunks they were seen facing both head up and head down. Lizards were commonly observed in pairs or trios, only found in areas with boulders, and no lizards were observed on the ground. We believe the abundance of this species and its non-secretive nature (unlike that of nearly every other species of Cnemaspis we have observed) may be due to the fact that there are no other diurnal lizards with which to compete. The only other diurnal species observed in their habitat were the skinks Eutropis multifasciata (Kuhl) and Scincella rufocaudata (Darevsky & Nguyen) . Cyrtodactylus condorensis (Smith) , however, is common at night in the same microhabiats occupied by C. boulengerii during the day.

At night, Cnemaspis boulengerii was not seen on the tops of rocks or on the open faces of boulders but was observed only in rock cracks, on the undersides of rocky overhangs, and within caves. Here too, individuals are abundant and commonly found in pairs or trios. Rarely are lizards seen on trees at night and when they are, they are much more wary. Several gravid females carrying two eggs and tens of incubating eggs in communal laying sites in rock cracks and caves were found during August, indicating that this is the reproductive season. Cnemaspis boulengerii is very similar in all aspects of its behavior to its closest relative C. psychedelica ( Grismer et al. 2010b) .

Relationships. Cnemaspis boulengerii is the sister species of C. psychedelica ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Vietnam: Ria-Vung Tau Province , Con Dao Archipelago , Con Dao Island CAS 73745, LSUHC 9542 , 9578–79 , 11364 , 11366–68 , 11370 , MCZ 39014-23 , Pulo Condore (= Con Dao), Con Son Island , Vietnam.

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 6. Adult male Cnemaspis boulengerii (LSUDPC 8199) from Con Son Island in the Con Dao Archipelago, Ba-Ria- Vung Tau Province, Vietnam in the dark color pattern phase. Photograph by LLG.

FIGURE 7. Cnemaspis boulengerii from Con Son Island in the Con Dao Archipelago, Ba-Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam. Upper left: adult female (LSUDPC 8219) in the dark color pattern phase. Upper right: adult female (LSUDPC 8200) in the light color pattern phase. Lower left: granite boulder microhabitat on Con Son Island. Lower right: juvenile (LSUDPC 8222) showing the more vivid, light-colored, paravertebral blotches. Photographs by LLG.