Cyrtopodion aravallense
Creators: name: Patel, Harshil
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Cyrtopodion
Cyrtopodion aravallense

description: Cyrtopodion aravallense (Gill, 1997)   
(Figs. 1–6)  
 Cyrtodactylus aravallensis Gill, 1997; Kluge, 2001   
 Cyrtopodion aravallensis Das, 2003   
 Cyrtopodion aravallense Agarwal et al. 2014   
 Holotype. BNHS 1433, adult male; collected from the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India.   
 Etymology. The specific epithet ‘ aravallensis ’ was originally created after the collection locality, which is a part of the northern extension of the Aravalli Hills.   
 Diagnosis. Cyrtopodion aravallense differs from all of its congeners by the following combination of characteristics: SVL up to 50 mm; dorsal scalation on trunk granular, intermixed with enlarged, regularly arranged transverse rows of 15 trihedral tubercles; 6 transverse rows of tubercles on the second segment of the tail; midbody scale rows across belly 25–26; midventral scales 102; 12 lamellae on digit I of manus and 20 on digit IV of manus; 11 lamellae on digit I of pes and 22 on digit IV of pes; 9–10 supralabials, 7–8 infralabials; males with 6 precloacal pores, 7–8 femoral pores on each side separated by 3–5 poreless scales between precloacal and femoral pores.   
 Redescription of Holotype (BNHS 1433). The holotype is generally in good condition with some minor artefacts of preservation (Fig. 2). The body shape is somewhat dorsoventrally flattened, tail partly regenerated and curved on the right side, forelimbs slightly adpressed, gular region and eyes sunken, skin slightly loose and darker on the lower body, indicating some degree of rotting. Head short (HL/SVL ratio 0.28), slightly elongate (HW/HL ratio 0.78), not strongly depressed (HH/HL ratio 0.39), relatively broad (HW/BW ratio 1.07), distinct from neck (Fig. 3A, 3B). Loreal region slightly inflated, canthus rostralis not prominent. Snout short (SE/HL ratio 0.43); twice longer than eye diameter (OD/SE ratio 0.47); scales on snout, canthus rostralis, forehead and glabellar region homogeneous in shape and slightly heterogenous in size, those on glabellar region being smallest and largest on snout; rounded, flat and juxtaposed, except 2 or 3 rows at preocular position that are smaller and somewhat flattened; scales on occipital region heterogenous, granular, intermixed with slightly larger, rounded, weakly conical tubercles, gradually increasing in size towards neck region (Fig. 3A); 40 scales between rostral and occiput sinus. Eye small (OD/HL ratio 0.20); pupil vertical with crenate margins; superciliaries small, mucronate, increasing in size towards upper anterior portion of eye. Ear opening oval (greatest diameter 1.9 mm); eye to ear distance greater than diameter of eye (EE/OD ratio 1.65). Rostral deeper (1.7 mm) than wide (1.4 mm), incompletely divided dorsally by weakly developed rostral groove; two internasals (or supranasals) separated by a single, slightly larger scale; one postsupranasal which is slightly larger than the supranasal; rostral in contact with nasal, supralabial I, internasals and scale between internasals; nostrils large, slightly oval, directed outwards. Mental triangular, slightly longer (2.7 mm) than wide (2.6 mm); three pairs of well-developed postmentals, the inner pair largest and broadly in contact with each other behind mental, size gradually decreasing with outermost pair being the smallest (Fig. 3B). Mental bordered by infralabial I and first pair of postmental; first postmental in contact with two gular scales; second and third postmental in contact with three gular scales. Infralabials bordered by a single row of enlarged and elongated scales starting from centre of infralabial III to infralabial VIII on right and from below infralabial III to infralabial VII on left. Supralabials (to midorbital position) 9 (right)–10 (left); infralabials (to midorbital position) 8 (right)–7 (left).   
Body slender, trunk not elongate (TRL/SVL ratio 0.41), with a distinct ventrolateral fold. Dorsal pholidosis heterogenous, composed of flat, granular scales intermixed with regularly arranged, enlarged trihedral tubercles in 15 longitudinal rows at midbody, extending from nape to tail, the paravertebral tubercles are smaller (almost half) in size compared to the adjacent rows, 26 transverse rows of tubercles between occiput sinus and middle of sacrum; those on nape slightly smaller; enlarged tubercles on the dorsum roughly 11–15 times longer than adjacent granules, surrounded by rosette of 12–16 small granules, 1–2 granules between two adjacent enlarged tubercles (Fig. 4). Ventral scales much larger than granular scales on dorsum, roughly pentagonal to hexagonal, smooth, imbricate, more or less similar in size throughout, except 3–4 rows on precloacal and last row on femoral region being largest; midbody scale rows across belly 25 or 26; midventral scales 102; gular region with more or less similar, smooth, rounded, subimbricate scales, increasing in size anteriolaterally (Fig. 3B). Two subequal, smooth, conical postcloacal spurs on each side, much smaller than dorsal tubercles; anterior one slightly bigger in size.  
Cloacal region with 6 precloacal pores, 7 femoral pores on left side and 8 femoral pores on right side, separated from precloacal pores by 3 poreless scales on left side and 5 poreless scales on right side (Fig. 5). Scales on the palm and sole granular; scales on upper arm heterogeneous, imbricate on dorsal side and granular on the ventral side, with 3 to 4 uppermost scale rows keeled; those on forearm heterogenous, imbricate, intermixed with enlarged conical, keeled tubercles; scales on hindlimbs heterogenous, dorsal part of thigh and shank are similar to dorsum, with granular scales, intermixed with enlarged, trihedral, strongly keeled tubercles, which are denser on shank than thigh, anterior portion of thighs and ventral aspect of hindlimbs with much enlarged, smooth, imbricate scales. Fore and hind limbs relatively slender; forearm short (FL/SVL ratio 0.16); tibia long (CL/SVL ratio 0.22); digits moderately long, thin, strongly clawed; subdigital lamellae not enlarged and are as following: 12-15-17-20-17 (left manus) 12- 15-17-20-16 (right manus; Fig. 6A), 11-17-20-22-19 (left pes) 11-17-20-22-19 (right pes; Fig. 6B).  
Tail partly regenerated, depressed; original tail verticillate, oval in transverse section; dorsal tail pholidosis heterogenous with smaller, rounded, weakly keeled sub-imbricate scales, gradually increasing in size towards lateral aspect and tail tip, intermixed with six much enlarged strongly keeled, pointed tubercles. Median subcaudal series much enlarged, covering base of the tail, with a row of much smaller, flat, weakly pointed, subimbricate scales on either side.  
 Measurements. SVL 49.5 mm; TL 65.6 mm (partially regenerated); TRL 20.5 mm; BW 10.4 mm; CL 11.3 mm; TW 5.6 mm; HL 14.3 mm; HW 11.2 mm; HH 5.7 mm; FL 8.2 mm; OD 2.9 mm; NE 4.8 mm; SE 6.2 mm; EE 4.8 mm; IN 1.6 mm; IO 4.4 mm; EL 1.9 mm.   
 Colouration in preservation. Dorsum ground colour of body, head, limbs and tail light-brown; top of head with indistinct tan to brownish blotches on rostrum, posterior part of canthus rostralis and occiput; labials similar in shade to dorsum of head; two indistinct narrow postorbital streaks extending as far as ear opening; neck with pair of dark bands, 3 transverse dark brownish bands; venter pale white; posterior half of trunk dark brownish due to some sort of post preservation artefact; limbs with indistinct crossbars and a few lighter blotches; 7–8 indistinct caudal bands, regenerated portion of tail without bands.   
 Comparisons. Morphologically, C. aravallense differs from all its congeners in having precloacal and femoral pores separated by poreless scales whereas all other members of genus Cyrtopodion have precloacal pores only or a continuous series of precloacal-femoral pores. Major diagnostic characters for C. aravallense and all its congeners are summarized in Table 1.
description: Published as part of Patel, Harshil, 2022, Revisiting the type of Cyrtopodion aravallense (Gill, 1997): redescription of the species with comments on the genus, pp. 453-462 in Zootaxa 5175 (4) on pages 454-458, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5175.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/7006393