A new medium-bodied rupicolous Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Sirumalai massif, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

We describe a new species of the Hemidactylus acanthopholis clade from Sirumalai, an isolated massif in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu state, India. Hemidactylus sirumalaiensis sp. nov. can be diagnosed from all members of the prashadi group by its medium body size (SVL <95 mm), the number of dorsal tubercles rows at mid-body, the number of enlarged tubercles in paravertebral rows, the number of femoral pores and poreless scales between series of left and right femoral pores on the femoral-precloacal row in males, the number of ventral scales across the belly at mid-body and subtle colour pattern differences. The new species is the fourth member of the acanthopholis clade and 8.5–13.4 % divergent in ND2 sequence data from other members of the clade. We also provide data on additional specimens from a new locality of Hemidactylus kolliensis, previously known only from the male holotype. Hemidactylus sirumalaiensis sp. nov. is the first endemic and only the other vertebrate species described from Sirumalai massif in the last 133 years. Most rupicolous Hemidactylus species from peninsular India outside the Western Ghats are known only from a few localities and are likely to be geographically restricted in distribution, and large areas of suitable habitat remain unsurveyed, suggesting many more allied species remain to be discovered.

A new species of large-bodied Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Western Ghats of India

“…We considered data from only five specimens (BNHS 1850, BNHS 1858, BNHS 1859, BNHS 1859, BMNH 1946 of H. graniticolus reported in Agarwal et al (2011) since some of the samples from the other locations (Yercaud, Salem district) are identified as H. cf. graniticolus in the recent studies (see discussion) (Agarwal et al 2019a;Khandekar et al 2020). Morphological data for the other large bodied Hemidactylus were obtained from literature and the original descriptions (Chaitanya et al 2018;Giri, 2008;Khandekar et al 2021, Mirza et al 2018Mirza & Sanap 2014;Srikanthan et al 2018;Amarasinghe et al 2021) Museum abbreviations are as follows: BNHS: Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India; BMNH: Natural History Museum, London; ZSI-WGRC: Zoological Survey of India, Western Ghats Regional Centre, Kozhikode, India.…”

“…Srikanthan et al (2018), in the original description, included two different spellings, "Hemidactylus paaragowlipaaragowli"(abstract) or "Hemidactylus paaragowli" (keywords, description). However, the original authors or the subsequent authors working on the systematics of Hemidactylus from India did not correct this nomenclatural error but used the name "Hemidactylus paaragowli" (Mirza et al 2018;Agarwal et al 2019a;Lajmi and Karanth 2020;Khandekar et al 2020). Here in this work, according to the provisions of articles 19.3, 24.2 & 32.2.1 of the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999), we act as the first reviser and choose Hemidactylus paaragowli as the correct spelling since this spelling is used in the formal description part and higher usage (20 times) over the incorrect "Hemidactylus paaragowlipaaragowli" which is cited only once in the abstract of the original description (Srikanthan et al 2018).…”

Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

“…Recent research on Hemidactylus has focused primarily on taxonomy and systematics (e.g. Ceriaco et al, 2020; Smid et al, 2020; 2023; Lobon-Rovira et al, 2021; Adhikari et al, 2022; Das et al,2022; Pal & Mirza, 2022; Khandekar et al, 2023; Narayanan et al, 2023), with fewer studies on biogeography (Lajmi et al, 2019; Murdoch, 2022), diversification (Lajmi & Karanth, 2020; Luzete et al, 2022), invasive potential and dispersal ecology (Agarwal et al, 2021; Rato et al, 2021; Lamb et al,2021; Lapwong et al, 2021), and ectoparasite biology (Borroto-Páez et al, 2020; Diaz et al, 2020). Although many of these studies involve phylogenetic reconstructions, they are mostly localized.…”