Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis Boruah, Narayanan, Lalronunga, Deepak & Das 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Boruah, Bitupan
name: Narayanan, Surya
name: Aravind, Neelavar Ananthram
name: Lalronunga, Samuel
name: Deepak, V.
name: Das, Abhijit
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Cyrtodactylus
Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis

description: Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis Boruah, Narayanan, Lalronunga, Deepak & Das sp. nov.
Figure 7; Tables 2, S 2
Holotype.
Adult male (WII-ADR 1057; Fig. 7 A – J), from Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary (22.4906 ° N; 92.7575 ° E; elevation 160 m a. s. l.) (Fig. 3 A), Lawngtlai District, Mizoram, India collected by Abhijit Das, Bitupan Boruah and Samuel Lalronunga on 8 September 2021.
Paratypes.
Two adult females (WII-ADR 991 and WII-ADR 1058) and one subadult female (WII-ADR 1059) collected from the same locality in Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary by the same team on 7 and 8 September 2021.
Diagnosis.
Medium-sized gecko (SVL at least 61.2 mm in adult male and 72–74.1 mm in adult females); 9–12 supralabials; 8–11 infralabials; 18–20 bluntly conical and feebly keeled dorsal tubercles; 29–34 paravertebral tubercles; 38 or 39 midventral scale rows between the weak ventrolateral folds; no precloacal groove; at least 27 precloacofemoral pores in continuous series in male and 10–16 small precloacal pores in females; short dark-brown bars between a pair of dorsolateral stripes or enlarged irregular dark-brown spots present on dorsum.
Description of holotype.
Holotype well preserved except an incision below left axilla ventrolaterally. Snout-vent length 61.2 mm. Head moderately large (HL / SVL = 0.27), dorsoventrally depressed, longer than width (HW / HL = 0.68), distinct from neck, broader at occipital region, snout tip rounded in both dorsal and lateral view, loreal region convex, canthus rostralis rounded, indistinct, interorbital space flat, a longitudinal furrow on dorsal surface of the snout, snout short (SO / HL = 0.4), longer than orbit (OD / SO = 0.66), nostril nearly rounded, opening directed posterolaterally, ear opening oval and oblique, scales on head heterogeneous, largest on snout and loreal region, posteriorly smaller in upper eyelid, interorbital space and occipital region, granular juxtaposed, scales on upper eyelids heterogeneous, supraciliaries outwardly sharp giving serrated appearance in dorsal view, size anterior and posterior end decreases, rostral wide, a short groove at the middle on top, rostral connected with nasals, supranasals, an internasal and first supralabials, two scales between the supranasals, larger than the rest of the granular snout scales, granular scales at parietal region and occipital region intermixed with slightly large rounded granular tubercles, dense in occipital and temporal region and size increases towards nape, nine supralabials on right and 10 on left side, size decreases towards angle of jaw, supralabials up to midorbit seven on right and eight on left side, a series of narrow and slightly elongated scales above the supralabials between nostril and anterior border of the orbit, mental as wide as rostral, triangular, connected with first infralabials, inner postmentals, nine infralabials on both side, size decreases towards angle of jaw, first infralabials connected with mental, second infralabial, inner and outer postmentals, inner pair of postmentals are larger than the outer postmentals, posterior margin of the inner postmentals bordered by seven granular scales of different size, two or three rows of enlarged scales along the infralabials starting below the outer postmentals, posteriorly size of those decreases, elongated and narrow, rest of the gular scales are small, granular juxtaposed, homogeneous, size increases towards the throat where they become imbricate.
Habitus slender (BW / SVL = 0.17, TRL / SVL = 0.41), dorsoventrally depressed, dorsal scales granular, rounded, heterogeneous, intermixed with rounded, weakly keeled and bluntly conical tubercles irregularly arranged, starting from occipital region to seventh segment of the tail, size increases towards posterior body, pronounced at sacrum and base of the tail, 18 dorsal tubercles across mid dorsum, 29 paravertebral tubercles, ventrolateral fold weak, ventral scales larger than those of dorsal, flat, smooth, cycloid subimbricate to imbricate, largest on belly, 39 mid-ventral scales between ventrolateral fold, 27 precloacal femoral (PcFP) pores in a continuous series (Fig. 7 I), followed by eight unpored, large scales below the PcFP at the middle.
Forelimbs and hindlimbs slender (FL / SVL = 0.14, CL / SVL = 0.19); digits strongly inflected at the joints, all bearing large recurved claw, enlarged subdigital lamellae; lamellae beneath digit IV of right and left manus (given as basal + distal) is 5 + 8 and 5 + 9 respectively; lamellae beneath digit IV of right and left pes (given as basal + distal) is 4 + 10 and 5 + 10 respectively; dorsal scales on forelimbs heterogeneous, granular juxtaposed; dorsal scales of hindlimbs heterogeneous, granular, intermixed with densely placed large, rounded and bluntly conical tubercles, scales on inner lateral side of the thighs near knee are subimbricate; ventral scales of forelimbs granular, juxtaposed, mostly homogeneous; scales on palm heterogeneous in shape and size, granular; scales on ventral side of hindlimbs nearly equal to those of belly, smooth, cycloid and subimbricate, but on the knee, above cloaca and on thigh below the level of precloacal pores are smaller and granular; scales on soles heterogeneous, granular, juxtaposed to subimbricate.
Tail complete (TL = 70 mm), slender, gradually tapering towards tip, segments indistinct, dorsal scales granular, juxtaposed, flat, smooth, heterogeneous in shape and size; enlarged feebly keeled scales up to eight segments of the tail, those on basal segment are pronounced; subcaudal scales smooth, subimbricate, wider than that of dorsal, heterogeneous in shape and size; no enlarged plate like series of subcaudal scales.
Colouration in life.
Fig. 7 J. Top of head pale-brown with indistinct pale-cream coloured spots on anterior part, a few slightly dark-brown patches on upper eyelids, temporal and occipital region; supraciliary yellowish-brown; dark-brown postocular streak on each side which continues dorsolaterally along neck and trunk to tail base, on right side this stripe is disjunct; a pale-cream coloured steak on each side of the dark-brown post orbital streak; an indistinct brown stripe along loreal region and a pale-cream coloured streak above it; upper lip with irregular brown and pale-yellow spots; a pair of dark-brown stripe with irregular edge on neck interspaced by an elongated pale-cream coloured patch, posterior ends of these stripes are connected; an enlarged dark-brown spot at the middle of nape; a pair of narrow pale-cream coloured stripe on neck above the lateral dark-brown stripe running up to slightly behind the level of axilla; dorsum pale-brown with seven irregular shaped and sized, broad dark-brown cross bars, these bars posteriorly edged with narrow cream coloured patch, first two cross bars are shorter than the rests; a few enlarged whitish spots along lateral side of the trunk; dorsally limbs pale-brown intermixed with slightly darker spots and light patches; dorsally tail with alternating slightly dark-brown broad bands and narrow pale-cream coloured bands of irregular shape and size; spurs cream coloured; ventrally head and trunk whitish with pinkish tinge and scales with brown marbling; some scales above and below the cloaca are pale-yellow; tail with slightly dense brown marbling.
Colouration in preservative.
Dorsal and ventral colour nearly the same as that of in life; dorsal markings visible as that of life condition.
Morphological variation.
Details of the variations in morphometric and meristic characters of the type series are provided in Table S 2. Apart from these dorsal markings among the paratypes slightly varied. In the two paratypes (WII-ADR 1058 and WII-ADR 1059), dorsal bands are broken mid dorsally giving the appearance of enlarged spots (Fig. S 2). Precloacal pores in female are smaller than that of male.
Comparison.
Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis sp. nov. can be differentiated from the members of the C. khasiensis clade (except C. ayeyarwadyensis, C. guwahatiensis, C. karsticola and C. tripuraensis) by the presence of precloacofemoral pores in male (vs. no femoral pores in male of C. agarwali, C. exercitus, C. kazirangaensis, C. khasiensis, C. septentrionalis, C. urbanus). Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis sp. nov. differs from C. ayeyarwadyensis by presence of tiny precloacal pores in female, PcP 10–16 (vs. PcP absent in female); differs from C. bapme by presence of 10–16 precloacal pores in female (vs. 0–13 pitted precloacal scales), dorsal tubercle rows, DTR 18 or 20 (vs. 21–24); differs from C. guwahatiensis by fewer preclocaofemoral pores, PcFP 27 (vs. PcFP 35–39), PcFP in a continuous series (vs. 26 PcFP interrupted by 11 unpored scales in holotype C. guwahatiensis), PcP present in females (vs. PcP absent in females), higher mid-ventral scale rows, MVSR 38–39 (MVSR vs. 30–35), fewer dorsal tubercle rows, DTR 18–20 (vs. DTR 21–24); differs from C. karsticola by fewer precloacal femoral pores in male, PcFP 27 (vs. PcFP 34–38), less number of dorsal tubercle rows, DTR 18–20 (vs. DTR 21–24), fewer paravertebral tubercles, PVT 29–34 (vs. PVT 34–39); differs from C. tripuraensis by fewer precloacal femoral pores in male, PcFP 27 (vs. PcFP 29–37) and less number of precloacal pores, PcP 10–16 in female (vs. PcP 19–29 in female). Morphological differences with other members of khasiensis group is presented in Table 2.
Sequence divergence.
Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis sp. nov. has a moderate genetic divergence of 4.1–6.6 % from its closely related C. ayeyarwadyensis, 4.2–6.0 % from C. tripuraensis. With other members of the clade, C. ngengpuiensis sp. nov. has a genetic divergence between 8.6 % and 15.7 % in the ND 2 gene. The intraspecific divergence is between the two samples of C. ngengpuiensis sp. nov. is 0.8 %.
Etymology.
The specific epithet is a toponym derived from the name “ Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary ” of Mizoram state from where the type series of the species were collected.
Suggested common name.
Ngengpui bent-toed gecko.
Distribution and natural history.
Cyrtodactylus ngengpuiensis sp. nov. new species is currently only known from the type locality, the Ngengpui Wildlife Sanctuary, Lawngtlai District, Mizoram, India. The forest is characterised as tropical semi-evergreen to moist evergreen forest. The forest is dominated by Dipterocarpus spp., palms, canes and rattans. Individuals of C. ngengpuiensis sp. nov. were collected during 6–9 September 2021 at 21: 00–22: 00 hrs. Individuals were recorded in bamboo thickets, on tree buttresses and trunks, and amongst ferns and rocks along the banks of evergreen forest streams.
description: Published as part of Boruah, Bitupan, Narayanan, Surya, Aravind, Neelavar Ananthram, Lalronunga, Samuel, Deepak, V. & Das, Abhijit, 2024, Description of six new species of Cyrtodactylus Gray (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from northeastern India, pp. 453-486 in Vertebrate Zoology 74 on pages 453-486, DOI: 10.3897/vz.74.e124752