Dwarfs of the fortress: A new cryptic species of dwarf gecko of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Rajgad fort in the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

A new species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from the Rajgad fort in the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. The new species, belonging to the flaviventralis clade, is one of the smallest known Indian Cnemaspis and can be distinguished from other congeners by its genetic distinctiveness and few key morphological characters. The new species can be diagnosed from all other Indian congeners by its small body size (SVL < 27 mm), the absence of conical and spine-like tubercles on flank; heterogeneous dorsal pholidosis; presence of only femoral pores and no precloacal pores in males; weakly keeled scales on the ventral surface of neck, pectoral, abdominal region and limbs; granular scales on the tail with whorls of slightly enlarged, strongly keeled tubercles; and the absence of enlarged median subcaudal scales. The new species is currently known to inhabit the man-made historical structures from a single locality in Rajgad, Maharashtra, where it is presumed to be uncommon.

A NEW DWARF GECKO SPECIES (SQUAMATA: GEKKONIDAE: Cnemaspis) FROM THE NORTHERN WESTERN GHATS OF INDIA

“…The ML (16S + ND2) and the BI (16S) analysis shows the species to be a member of the C. girii clade (Fig. 1; Mirza et al 2014;Sayyed et al 2016Sayyed et al , 2018Sayyed et al , 2021Khandekar et al 2019Khandekar et al , 2021aSayyed & Sulakhe 2020;Pal et al 2021). The new species recovered is a sister to the C. limayei+C.…”

“…DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing: DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing protocols for the 16S gene as per Sayyed et al (2021) were followed. The genomic DNA of Cnemaspis specimens (BNHS 2927 and BNHS 2928) was extracted from muscle tissue (thigh tissue) samples that were preserved in 100% ethanol.…”

Three more novel species of South Asian Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India

“…The South Asian clade within the polyphyletic genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 diversified from a Western Ghats origin during the PaleoceneEocene and today in cludes over 100 species disjunctly distributed in peninsu lar India, Sri Lanka, parts of Southeast Asia, with a single species in northeast India (Iskandar et al 2017;Lee et al 2019;Agarwal et al , 2021aAmarasinghe et al 2021;Pal et al 2021;Uetz et al 2022). A recent series of contributions on the taxonomy and biogeography of South Asian Cnemaspis have resulted in the placement of almost all described species from India and Sri Lanka into phylogenies, redescriptions of several poorly known species, and descriptions of a large number of new species (Sayyed et al 2018(Sayyed et al , 2021Cyriac et al 2018Cyriac et al , 2020Khandekar et al 2019aKhandekar et al , 2019bKhandekar et al , 2020aKhandekar et al , 2020bKhandekar et al , 2021aKhandekar et al , 2021bKhandekar et al , 2022Murthy et al 2019;Chandramouli, 2020;Agarwal et al 2020aAgarwal et al , 2020bAgarwal et al , 2021aAgarwal et al , 2021bSayyed and Sulakhe, 2020;Karunarathna et al 2021;Pal et al 2021).…”

Three new cryptic species of South Asian Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Karnataka, India

“…Con-sidered part of the paraphyletic gekkonid genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887(Grismer et al 2014, this is the oldest extant Indian squamate clade with its most recent common ancestor dating back to ~62 million years ago (Agarwal et al 2020c;Pal et al 2021) and is represented by more than 100 species with over 50 % of its diversity restricted to India (68 species) followed by Sri Lanka (40 species) (Am-arasinghe et al 2021;Khandekar et al 2021b;Pal et al 2021;Uetz et al 2021). The taxonomic revision of Indian and Sri Lankan Cnemaspis by Manamendra-Arachchi et al (2007) and published phylogenies have led to a steady surge in new species descriptions from India-more than doubling the known diversity of the genus in less than the past four years (Sayyed et al 2018(Sayyed et al , 2019(Sayyed et al , 2021Cyriac et al 2018Cyriac et al , 2020Khandekar, 2019;Khandekar et al 2019aKhandekar et al , 2019b, Murthy et al 2019Agarwal et al 2020aAgarwal et al , 2020bAgarwal et al , 2020cAgarwal et al , 2021bChandramouli, 2020;Sayyed and Sulakhe 2020;Pal et al 2021). Currently, SAC is the country's most diverse reptilian clade and recently surpassed the rhacophorid frog genus Raorchestes Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta and Bossuyt, 2010 that includes 65 species (Frost 2022) to become the most diverse Indian vertebrate genus (Vijayakumar et al 2014;Garg et al 2021;Khandekar et al 2021b;Sayyed et al 2021).…”

“…The taxonomic revision of Indian and Sri Lankan Cnemaspis by Manamendra-Arachchi et al (2007) and published phylogenies have led to a steady surge in new species descriptions from India-more than doubling the known diversity of the genus in less than the past four years (Sayyed et al 2018(Sayyed et al , 2019(Sayyed et al , 2021Cyriac et al 2018Cyriac et al , 2020Khandekar, 2019;Khandekar et al 2019aKhandekar et al , 2019b, Murthy et al 2019Agarwal et al 2020aAgarwal et al , 2020bAgarwal et al , 2020cAgarwal et al , 2021bChandramouli, 2020;Sayyed and Sulakhe 2020;Pal et al 2021). Currently, SAC is the country's most diverse reptilian clade and recently surpassed the rhacophorid frog genus Raorchestes Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta and Bossuyt, 2010 that includes 65 species (Frost 2022) to become the most diverse Indian vertebrate genus (Vijayakumar et al 2014;Garg et al 2021;Khandekar et al 2021b;Sayyed et al 2021).…”