Cnemaspis harimau Chan, Grismer, Shahrul, Quah, Muin, Savage, Grismer, Norhayati, Remegio & Greer, 2010

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 : 68-70

Cnemaspis harimau Chan, Grismer, Shahrul, Quah, Muin, Savage, Grismer, Norhayati, Remegio & Greer, 2010 b

Tiger Rock Gecko

Fig. 34

Holotype. ZRC 2.6894. Type locality: “Sungai Badak (=Badak river), Gunung Jerai, Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia (N 05°48.59’, E 100°23.53’)” at 600 m in elevation.

Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 40.7 mm; nine or 10 supralabials; nine or 10 infralabials; ventral scales keeled; four discontinuous, pore-bearing precloacal scales with round pores; 18–20 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles not linearly arranged, present on flanks; tubercles in lateral caudal furrows; ventrolateral caudal tubercles absent anteriorly; lateral row of caudal tubercles present; caudal tubercles 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 enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 25–30 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; gular region and throat yellow in males; single ocellus in shoulder region in males; yellow postscapular band variable; transverse yellow bars on flanks (Tables 6,7).

Color pattern in life ( Fig. 34 ). Ground color of dorsum grayish-brown; top of head yellowish with an indistinct, gray speckling pattern on occiput; faint, preorbital stripe; three black lines radiate from anterior region of nape onto base of occiput; light, gray, irregularly shaped, paravertebral blotches extend from nape to base of tail; broken, dark, paravertebral, longitudinal streaks begin with paired streaks in prescapular region and alternate with paravertebral blotches posteriorly, terminating at base of tail; black shoulder patch bordered anteriorly by short, yellow band enclosing a whitish ocellus and bordered posteriorly by a longer, yellow band; shoulder patch absent in females; a series of yellow bands on flanks decreasing in length posteriorly with last band terminating just anterior to hind limb insertion; dorsal surfaces of limbs speckled with dark and yellowish markings; tail distinctly marked with diffuse, dark-gray and whitish bands; gular region and throat yellow-orange in males; ventral surfaces of limbs, remainder of body, and base of tail light gray; and subcaudal region darkly stippled.

Distribution. Cnemaspis harimau is endemic to Gunung Jerai, Kedah in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia (Chan et al. 2010b; Fig. 3 ).

Natural history. Gunung Jerai is an isolated mountain reaching 1217 m in elevation on the northwest shore of Peninsular Malaysia. Chan et al. (2010b) reported finding lizards on granite rocks and at the base of trees at 600 m in elevation during the day and night in hill forest vegetation ( Fig. 35 ). Lizards appear to be far more active during the day and are much more sedentary at night. When frightened, lizards will seek refuge in the porus matrices formed by the dry expansive soil at the base of the rocks ( Grismer 2011a). We have observed lizards on isolated rocks along the edge of the main road leading to the summit of Gunung Jerai beginning at approximately 400 m in elevation.

Relationships. Cnemaspis harimau is the sister species of C. affinis ( Fig. 2 ).

Material examined. Malaysia: Kedah, Gunung Jeari LSUHC 9665, 9667, 9669, ZRC 2.6894–97 (type series). Additional material examined since Chan et al. (2010): Malaysia: Kedah, Gunung Jerai LSUHC 8229, 8232–33, 9666, 9668.

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 34. Cnemaspis harimau from Sungai Badak, Gunung Jerai, Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia. Upper left: adult male (LSUDPC 6381) in the dark color pattern phase. Upper right: adult female (LSUDPC 5334) in the light color pattern phase. Lower left: adult female (LSUDPC 6382) in the light color pattern phase. Photographs by LLG. Middle right: juvenile male (LSUDPC 6520) in light color pattern phase. Photograph by ESHQ. Lower right: ventral view of adult male (LSUDPC 5337). Photograph by LLG.

FIGURE 35. Microhabitat of Cnemaspis harimau at Sungai Badak, Gunung Jerai, Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia. Photograph by LLG.