Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis Yan, Lin, Guo, Li & Zhou, 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yan, Jie
name: Lin, Yubo
name: Guo, Weibo
name: Li, Peng
name: Zhou, Kaiya
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Hemiphyllodactylus
Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis

description: Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov.
Huishui Slender Gecko
Fig. 2
Holotype. Adult male (NJNUh00851) collected on 9 July, 2015 by Yubo Lin and Hao Li in the vicinity of Huishui County, Guizhou Province, China (26°08.36’N, 106°39.72’E, at an elevation of 990 m).
Paratype. Four adult female specimens: NJNUh00852, NJNUh00854, NJNUh00855, and NJNUh00856, collected on 10–11 July, 2015 from almost the same locality as the holotype; and three adult specimens, NJNUh00857 (female), NJNUh00858 (female) and NJNUh00859 (male), collected on 13–14 July, 2015 from Ziyun County, Guizhou Province, China (25°45.17’N, 106°04.85’E, at an elevation of 1260 m).
Diagnosis. Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from the remaining congeners of the genus Hemiphyllodactylus by having the unique combination of the following characters: a bisexual taxon; a maximum SVL of 47.4 mm in males and 51.2 mm in females; 8 or 10 chin scales; enlarged postmental scales; 3 circumnasal scales; 2 or 3 scales between supranasals; 9–11 supralabials; 9–11 infralabials; 13–15 dorsal scales; 7– 9 ventral scales; a lamellar hand formula of 3-4-4-4 or 4-4/5-5-4; a lamellar foot formula of 4-4/5-5-4/5; 3 subdigital lamellae on the first finger; 3 subdigital lamellae on the first toe; a continuous precloacal and femoral pore series of less than 20; one cloacal spur on each side in both males and females; no enlarged subcaudal scales; dark dorsal transverse blotches; dark postorbital stripe; a brown postsacral mark bearing anteriorly projecting arms; and unpigmented caecum and gonads (Table 4).
Description of holotype. Body compressed, size small SVL 42.6 mm, tail regenerated (TailL 4.2+ 19.8 mm), trunk length (TrunkL) 20.5 mm; head longer than wide (HeadL 9.5 mm, HeadW 7.8 mm); eye diameter (EyeD) 2.7 mm; snout-eye length (SnEye) 3.9 mm; nare-eye length (NarEye) 2.8 mm; internarial distance (SnW) 1.3 mm; ear opening distance (EarD) 0.5 mm. Proportions: TrunkL/SVL 48.1%, HeadL/SVL 22.3%, HeadW/SVL 18.2%, HeadW/HeadL 81.5%, SnEye/HeadL 41.4%, NarEye/HeadL 29.2%, EyeD/HeadL 28.3%, SnW/HeadL 12.7%, EyeD/NarEye 96.8%, SnW/HeadW 15.6%.
Scalation. Pupil vertical; supralabials 11/11, enlarged from rostral to below eye, smaller in subocular rictus; three circumnasal scales and three scales between supranasals; mental triangular; larger than first infralabial; infralabial 11/11; two postmentals, distinctly enlarged, in contact with each other medially, with mental and first infralabials anteriorly; 10 chin scales; dorsal scale granular, in 14 rows at midbody on dorsum (contained within one eye diameter), ventral scales larger than dorsal scales, in 9 rows at midbody on venter (contained within one eye diameter); one cloacal spur on each side; precloacal and femoral pore series continuous, 20 in total; all digits except digit I well developed; digit I vestigial, clawless; three transversely expanded lamellae on digit I (of both forefoot and hindfoot); one triangular lamellae on the distal end of each of the digits II–V of forefoot and hindfoot, digital formulae 3-4-4-4 (forefoot) and 4-5-5-5 (hindfoot) (Table 6).
Species 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis - sp. nov. (KU519707 -11)
H. aurantiacus (JN393933) 30.5-30.9 -
H. banaensis (KF219783) 16.0-16.4 3 0.2 -
H. changningensis (KP732436) 26.1-26.4 2 7.2 2 6.9 -
H. chiangmaiensis (KF219782) 26.1-26.6 2 8.0 2 5.6 1 9.1 -
H. dushanensis (FJ971016) 6.6-7.1 3 1.6 1 7.4 2 5.1 2 7.2 -
H. engganoensis (KF219776) 29.3-30.0 32.0 31.3 27.9 28.3 29.5 -
H. ganoklonis (JN393950) 31.0-31.3 27.2 30.7 28.1 28.8 30.3 22.7 -
H. harterti (KF219760) 31.8-32.2 35.7 32.7 30.8 30.2 31.8 31.8 30.1 -
. H. jinpingensis (FJ971041) 25.4-25.9 25.4 27.5 17.5 14.8 25.9 27.8 27.4 30.5 -
. H. kiziriani (KJ676800) 20.5-21.2 27.6 22.7 25.9 27.5 20.6 29.9 30.8 32.3 28.1 -
. H. longlingensis (FJ971046) 28.6-29.0 25.0 30.3 18.4 18.7 29.5 28.3 28.8 32.7 18.5 27.7 -
. H. titiwangsaensis (KF219785) 30.3-31.3 29.0 29.3 27.8 30.0 30.0 30.3 29.6 25.4 28.1 32.5 28.6 -
. H. typus (GQ257745) 29.0-29.8 26.5 31.7 29.3 27.7 30.1 19.5 19.0 31.1 28.3 28.8 27.9 29.8 -
. H. yunnanensis (FJ971021) 20.5-21.0 27.9 22.0 23.9 25.0 21.0 28.3 27.9 29.8 25.6 20.7 26.4 29.5 27.9 -
. H. zugi (KF575152) 7.3-7.8 30.9 16.2 25.5 26.7 5.9 30.4 31.9 31.4 25.8 20.5 30.4 30.7 31.0 21.2 -
. H. sp. nov. 8 (JN393949) 27.5-27.9 23.7 27.3 20.3 14.4 27.9 28.2 27.0 31.1 13.2 28.2 18.9 28.4 27.2 25.7 28.1 -
. H. sp. nov. 9 (JN393935) 28.3-28.6 21.7 27.3 27.8 26.5 29.3 32.0 30.3 31.0 26.6 27.4 28.6 30.0 30.8 27.1 29.0 26.9 - ……continued on the next page Holotype Paratype
NJNUh00851 NJNUh00859 NJNUh00852 NJNUh00854 NJNUh00855 NJNUh00856 NJNUh00857 NJNUh00858 Holotype Paratype Coloration in preservation. Dorsal surface of head and body brown, darker on body; dorsal surface of the tail yellowish grey with several transverse brown bands, while the regenerated tail dark brown; at the base of the tail, white inconsecutive V- or U-shaped arms stretching forward; dorsal surface of limbs brown similar to head with weak, dark mottling; faint, diffuse dark stripe on lateral head, from the posterior corner of the orbit to neck, edged above by a narrow white stripe; ventral surface of the head and limbs cream grey and the body light brown.
Variation. Measurements and scalation characters of the paratypes are presented in Table 5 and Table 6. The scale counts vary among the type series: scales between supranasals 2 or 3; supralabials and infralabials 9–11; dorsal scale rows at midbody 13–15, and ventral scale rows at midbody 7–9; precloacal and femoral pores 0–20.
Etymology. This specific epithet is derived from the name of Huishui County of China and is in reference to the type locality.
Natural history. Huishui County is located in the central and southern part of Guizhou Province, with an average elevation of 1100 m. These specimens were collected in the evening on the walls of the village houses. Three female paratypes (NJNUh00852, NJNUh00854 and NJNUh00855) were gravid with two shelled eggs each.
Distribution. The species is currently known only from Huishui County and Ziyun County in southern Guizhou Province, Southwest China (Fig. 3).
Morphological comparisons. We compared the undescribed gecko species from southern Guizhou Province with selected members of the genus Hemiphyllodactylus based on examination of specimens and data obtained from the literature (Zhou et al. 1981 with English translation of Ota 1996; Zug 2010; Grismer et al. 2013, 2014; Nguyen et al. 2013, 2014; Ngo et al. 2014; Guo et al. 2015). Diagnostic characters separating this species from other nominal taxa of Hemiphyllodactylus are shown in Table 4.
Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. differs from H. chiangmaiensis Grismer, Wood & Cota; H. jinpingensis; H. kiziriani Nguyen, Botov, Le, Nophaseud, Bonkowski & Ziegler; H. longlingensis Zhou & Liu; H. yunnanensis; H. zugi and H. changningensis Guo, Zhou, Yan & Li in having a maximum SVL of 51.2 mm vs. a SVL <47 mm. It further differs from H. kiziriani and H. longlingensis by having 3 circumnasal scales vs. 4–5. Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. has 8 or 10 chin scales and 2–3 scales between supranasals which separate it from H. banaensis Ngo, Grismer, Thai & Wood. Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. can be differentiated from H. banaensis; H. jinpingensis; H. kiziriani and H. zugi by having 13–15 vs 11–12 or>17 dorsal scales, and from H. kiziriani and H. zugi additionally by having 7–9 vs.>11 ventral scales. Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. has a lamellar hand formula of 3-4-4-4 or 4-4/5-5-4 which separates chiangmaiensis (3-3-3-3 or 3-4-3-3) and H. changningensis (3-3/4-3/4-3), and a lamellar foot formula of 4-4/5-5-4/5 which separates chiangmaiensis (3-3-3-3 or 3-4-4-4); H. jinpingensis (4-4-4-4) and H. changningensis (3-3-3-3 or 3-4-4-4). Subdigital lamellae on first finger/toe can further differentiate Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. from H. banaensis; H. jinpingensis; H. kiziriani; H. longlingensis; H. yunnanensis and H. zugi, 3 vs. 4–6.
Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. can also be separated from H. banaensis; H. chiangmaiensis; H. kiziriani; H. longlingensis and H. zugi by having no light postorbital stripe. From H. dushanensis, Hemiphyllodactylus huishuiensis sp. nov. differs by the coloration of the dorsal surface of the body (brown with dark transverse stripes vs. unicolor light brown in H. dushanensis); having less subdigital lamellae on first finger (3 vs. 4–5 in H. dushanensis) and first toe (3 vs. 5–6 in H. dushanensis); less precloacal and femoral pores (usually <20 vs. 24–26 in H. dushanensis), and having dark postorbital stripe (vs. light postorbital stripe in H. dushanensis).
description: Published as part of Yan, Jie, Lin, Yubo, Guo, Weibo, Li, Peng & Zhou, Kaiya, 2016, A new species of Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker, 1860 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Guizhou, China, pp. 543-554 in Zootaxa 4117 (4) on pages 546-553, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4117.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/265926