Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis Grismer, Shi, Orlov & Ananjeva, 2002

Qi, Shuo, Ngo, Hai Ngoc, Grismer, L. Lee, Wang, Hao-Tian, Song, Han-Ming, Zhu, Xiao-Yu, He, Zhu-Qing, Zhou, Zi-Chen, Li, Pi-Peng, Wang, Ji-Chao & Wang, Ying-Yong, 2025, Integrative taxonomic revision of the Goniurosaurus lichtenfelderi group (Squamata: Eublepharidae): Insights from morphological and molecular data, Vertebrate Zoology 75, pp. 673-698 : 673-698

Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis Grismer, Shi, Orlov & Ananjeva, 2002

Figures 8 , 9

Chresonymy.

Eublepharis macularius — Huang (1964) Jiangbian village, Dongfang County (now Dongfang City) (Chinese description with B/W photo).

Chinese name.

霸王岭睑虎 (bà wáng lǐng jiǎn hǔ).

English names.

Bawangling leopard gecko, Bawangling tiger gecko.

Vietnamese name.

Thach sung mi ba wang ling.

Holotype.

MVZ 230973 , adult male, collected from 5.6 km northeast of the town of Bawangling , Hainan Province, People’s Republic of China, within the Hainan Bawangling National Nature Reserve; collected by L. Lee Grismer on 23 July 2000 .

Paratypes.

Ten paratypes in total, four adult females (R 9907001, R 9907003–04, MVZ 230975 ) and two adult males ( MVZ 230974 , 230977) collected from same locality as the holotype; one adult male ( MVZ 230978 ) and one juvenile female (R 9907002) from 8–9 km northeast of the town of Bawangling; one adult male ( MVZ 230976 ) from 9.0– 9.5 km northeast of the town of Bawangling; and one hatchling (R 9907005) from 19 km northeast of the town of Bawangling.

Specimens examined.

15 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀, see Appendix 1 for detail.

Diagnosis.

Based on the previous description ( Grismer et al. 2002; Shi et al. 2011) and examined specimens in this study: (1) SVL 83.6–100.1 mm in adult males, 80.0– 94.6 mm in adult females; (2) external nares bordered by 7–9 nasal scales; (3) internasal single; (4) supralabials 7–11; (5) infralabials 7–9; (6) preorbital scales 14–19; (7) supraorbital region with a row of slightly enlarged tubercles; (8) eyelid fringe scales 51–67; (9) scales around midbody 85–133; (10) longitudinal dorsal tubercle rows at midbody 20–25; (11) paravertebral tubercles between limb insertions 23–32; (12) axillary pockets deep; (13) presence of 36–46 precloacal pores in males form a continuous transverse series extending onto the femora, and absent in females; (14) dorsal ground color of head yellow-brown, body and limbs dark yellow-brown to dark brown in juveniles, without blotches; dorsal ground color of head, body and limbs brownish-yellow in adults, with small irregularly shaped dark brown blotches; (15) presence of five transverse bands, including one nuchal loop, three body bands and one caudal constriction band, orange-yellow to brownish-yellow with black brown anterior and posterior borders, transverse bands usually with dark brown spots in mature individuals; (16) nuchal loop rounded; (17) iris reddish-orange to dark reddish-brown.

Distribution.

Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis is an endemic species on Hainan Island, which is currently known from Changjiang Li Autonomous County (National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest, Bawangling Area, formerly Bawangling National Natural Reserve; Baomeiling Provincial Natural Reserve), Ledong Li Autonomous County (National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest, Jianfengling Area, formerly Jianfengling National Natural Reserve), Danzhou City (Nanfeng town), and Dongfang City (Jiangbian village), Hainan Province, China, at elevations of 400–750 m ( Huang 1964; Grismer et al. 2002; this study; Fig. 7 A, B ).

Remarks.

Huang (1964) recorded Eublepharis macularius based on two specimens from Hainan Island. However, this is undoubtedly a misidentification of a member of the genus Goniurosaurus as noted by Grismer (1988) who noted major differences in precloacal pore count, implying it was an undescribed species. One of the specimens was collected from Jiangbian village, Dongfang County (now Dongfang City) with a description and a B / W photo; another male specimen was collected from Nanxi Forestry Farm, Mt. Diaoluo without more detailed information. The specimen that was collected from Jiangbian village should be reidentified as G. bawanglingensis based on the B / W photo (Fig. 9 D ), morphological description and locality. It is not possible to re-identify the other specimen from Mt. Diaoluo.

Figures

Figure 7. Geographic distribution of accepted taxa of the Goniurosaurus lichtenfelderi group. A Prior to the present taxonomic revision; B Following the revised delimitation proposed in this study; C Distributional separation of G. hainanensis and G. cf. lichtenfelderi on Hainan Island.

Figure 8. A Juvenile Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis from Jianfengling NR, photo by Yong-Heng Zhu; B adult Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis from Jianfengling NR, photo by Shuo Qi; C adult Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis from Bawangling NR, photo by Shuo Qi; D “ Eublepharis macularius ”, from Hainan Island, cited from Huang (1964).

Figure 9. The holotype of Goniurosaurus bawanglingensis (MVZ 230973, adult male). A Four views of the head; B dorsal and ventral view of the entire body; C close-up of the cloacal region. Photos by Kai Wang.