Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei Grismer, Ahmad, Onn, Belabut, Wood & Grismer, 2009, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Grismer, Lee
name: Ahmad, Norhayati
name: Onn, Chan Kin
name: Belabut, Daicus
name: Wood, Perry L.
name: Grismer, Jesse L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Cnemaspis
Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei

description: Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei sp. nov.
False McGuire’s Rock Gecko Figures 4, 5, 6
Holotype. Adult male (ZRC 2.6777) collected on 16 October 2008 by Chan, K. O. at 0 130 hrs at 1351 m from Bukit Larut, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia along the road from the Gunung Hijau Rest House to the Telekom Tower (04° 51.715 N, 100° 47.993 E).
Paratypes. Paratype ZRC 2.6778 was collected on 16 June 2008 at 2300 hrs by J. L. Grismer, P. L. Wood, Jr., and L. L. Grismer at the same locality as the holotype. Paratype ZRC 2.6779 was collected on 18 June 2008 at 1500 hrs by J. L. Grismer, P. L. Wood, Jr., and L. L. Grismer on the Gunung Hijau Trail. Paratypes ZRC 2.6780–82 were collected between 2000–2400 hrs by Daicus, B., Chan K. O., B. Trevertt, Muin M., and L. L. Grismer on 16 October 2008 at the same locality as the holotype.
Diagnosis. Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei differs from all other Southeast Asia species of Cnemaspis in having the unique combination of adult males reaching 42.5 mm SVL, adult females reaching 40.0 mm SVL; nine supralabials; eight or nine infralabials; five or six small postmentals; forearm, subtibials, ventrals, and dorsal tubercles keeled; 26–31 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles on flanks, relatively small and not linearly arranged; lateral, caudal tubercles within lateral, caudal furrow; ventrolateral, caudal tubercles present anteriorly; median, subcaudal row of scales not enlarged; subcaudals keeled; no keeled, median subcaudal row of enlarged scales; two or three postcloacal tubercles; femoral pores absent; contiguous row of 5–10 porebearing, precloacal scales; subtibial scales not shield-like; no enlarged, submetatarsal scales; 23–25 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; no distinct, large, dark spots on neck; dark shoulder patch enclosing a white to yellow upper and lower ocellus; no prominent, wide, yellow to white, postscapular band or light markings on flanks; single, light postscapular spot posterior to black shoulder patch; distinct, dark and light, caudal bands absent; subcaudal region pigmented, not immaculate. These differences are summarized across all Southeast Asian species in Table 1.
Description of holotype. Adult male; SVL 41.1 mm; head oblong in dorsal profile, moderate in size (HL/ SVL 0.27), somewhat narrow (HW/SVL 0.18), flattened (HD/HL 0.42), distinct from neck; snout short (ES/ HL 0.45), slightly concave in lateral profile; postnasal region constricted medially, flat; scales of rostrum keeled, raised, larger than conical scales on occiput; moderate, supraorbital ridges; shallow, frontorostral sulcus; canthus rostralis nearly absent, smoothly rounded; eye large (ED/HL 0.23); extra-brillar, fringe scales largest anteriorly; pupil round; ear opening oval, taller than wide; rostral slightly concave, dorsal 80% divided by longitudinal groove; rostral bordered posteriorly by supranasals and one small, azygous scale and laterally by first supralabials; 9 (R,L) slightly raised supralabials tapering posteriorly; 8 (R,L) infralabials, decreasing in size posteriorly; nostrils elliptical, oriented posterodorsally; bordered posteriorly by small, granular, postnasal scales; mental large, triangular, concave, bordered posteriorly by six small postmentals; gular and throat scales raised, weakly keeled, conical.
Body slender, elongate; small, keeled, dorsal scales equal in size throughout body, intermixed with several large, multicarinate tubercles more or less randomly arranged; tubercles extend from occiput to base of tail; tubercles on flanks not enlarged, moderate in size; pectoral and abdominal scales strongly keeled, raised, slightly elongate, not larger posteriorly; abdominal scales slightly larger than dorsals; three small, porebearing, precloacal scales, medial scale and scale on right contiguous, scale on left separated from medial scale by one non-pore-bearing scale; precloacal depression absent; femoral pores absent; forelimbs moderately long, slender; dorsal scales raised, keeled; ventral scales of brachia smooth, raised, juxtaposed; scales beneath forearm, weakly keeled, subimbricate; palmar scales smooth, juxtaposed, raised; digits long with an inflected joint; claws recurved; subdigital lamellae unnotched; lamellae beneath first phalanges granular proximally, widened distally; lamellae beneath phalanx immediately following inflection granular, lamellae of distal phalanges wide; interdigital webbing absent; fingers increase in length from first to fourth with fourth and fifth equal in length; hind limbs slightly longer and thicker than forelimbs; dorsal scales raised, keeled, juxtaposed; scales of anterior margin of thigh keeled; ventral scales of thigh keeled; subtibial scales keeled, flat, imbricate, with no enlarged anterior row; plantar scales smooth, juxtaposed, raised; no enlarged submetatarsal scales beneath first metatarsal; digits elongate with an inflected jointed; claws recurved; subdigital lamellae unnotched; lamellae beneath first phalanges granular proximally, widened distally; lamellae beneath phalanx immediately following inflection granular, lamellae of distal phalanges wide; interdigital webbing absent; toes increase in length from first to fourth with fourth and fifth equal in length; 25 (R,L) subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; caudal scales arranged in segmented whorls; caudal scales keeled, juxtaposed anteriorly; shallow, middorsal furrow; deeper, single, lateral furrow; no enlarged, median, subcaudal scales; subcaudals keeled; no median row of enlarged, keeled, subcaudal scales; transverse, tubercle rows do not encircle tail; caudal tubercles present in lateral furrow; 3L, 2R enlarged, postcloacal tubercles on lateral surface of hemipenal swellings at base of tail; tail 1.48% of SVL.
Coloration (in life, Fig. 4, 6). Dorsal ground color of head, body, limbs and tail golden brown; snout yellow, top of head bearing small, black and yellow markings; thin, black postorbital stripe; thin, yellow, postorbital stripes unite on nape and continue posteriorly to form a wide, vertebral stripe which fades in the pelvic region; dark markings on nape anterior to yellow stripe; black shoulder patch encloses a larger, upper, posterior, white ocellus and a smaller, lower, anterior ocellus; upper ocellus absent on right side; single, light, postscapular spot posterior to black shoulder patch; faint, yellow, transverse markings on flanks; faint dark and dull yellow reticulum on limbs; tail faintly marked with light brown and dull yellow bands; all ventral surfaces beige with weak stippling.
Variation. Most of the paratypes approximate the holotype in general aspects of coloration pattern (Fig. 5). ZRC 2.6779 and 2.6781 lack a vertebral stripe and in their place have small, white, paravertebral markings edged anteriorly (Fig. 5). The dark postorbital stripe on ZRC 2.6779 and ZRC 2.6781 is more prominent, the yellow postorbital stripe more faint, and the snout not quite as yellow. ZRC 2.6779 is a male and ZRC 2.6781 is a female, indicating these differences are not due to sexual dimorphism. The color pattern lightens considerably at night, when many lizards appear nearly unicolor. Variation in meristics is presented in Table 3.
Distribution. Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei is known only from the type locality of Bukit Larut, Perak in the Bintang Mountain Range (Fig. 1). However, as with C. mcguirei, C. pseudomcguirei may range considerably farther north.
Natural History. Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei is a montane species found in hill dipterocarp forests from 1,000–1,300 m above sea level. During the day, lizards are observed beneath small stones and logs or within rotten logs. Unlike the sympatric species C. mcguirei, C. pseudomcguirei is not restricted to a microhabitat of large granite boulders and lizards are commonly found beneath, and within rotten logs in areas that are great distances (> 1 km) from boulder outcroppings. During the night, C. pseudomcguirei can be found exposed, sleeping on the surfaces of leaves 0.5–1.5 m above the ground. When we first began collecting this species we believed we were finding the juveniles of C. mcguirei and surmised that at this size, juvenile C. mcguirei tended to have a light vertebral stripe and apparently occupied a different microhabitat (vegetation as opposed to rocks). However, upon finding a gravid female (ZRC 2.6782; SVL 40.0 mm), we began to sharpen our focus on other morphological and ecological differences between these two “size classes”. To date, our observations indicate that C. mcguirei is never found farther than 1 m from the large boulders on which it resides and whose cracks and crevices into which it takes refuge. Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei was found on a large boulder only once and it was in area where C. mcguirei was not found. It is far more common to find this species on, beneath, and within surface debris on the forest floor, often great distances from boulder outcroppings. At night, C. mcguirei is active on the surface of the boulders and only occasionally on nearby (<1 m away) vegetation. Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei appears to be inactive at night and usually found sleeping on the surface of leaves.
ZRC ZRC ZRC ZRC ZRC ZRC 2.6778 2.6779 2.6777 2.6780 2.6781 2.6782 Enlarged submetatarsal scales on 1st toe 1 0 0 0 0 1 No. of 4th toe lamellae 23 24 25 25 23 23 Light vertebral line 0 1 1 1 0 1
Comparisons. The striking similarity between Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei and C. mcguirei is most notable in their color pattern (Fig. 6). Grismer et al. (2008b) believed C. mcguirei was unique among the shoulder patch group (i.e., C. affinis, C. biocellata, C. kumpoli, C. mcguirei, and possibly C. flavolineata) of Cnemaspis of the central Malay Peninsula in having a black shoulder patch enclosing an upper and lower white to yellow ocellus. However, C. pseudomcguirei bears remarkably similar markings (Fig. 6). Other less obvious similarities between these two species also exist in scalation (Table 4) and in fact they differ only in that C. pseudomcguirei has a series of five or six small, similarly sized postmentals whereas the lateral postmentals of C. mcguirei are large and separated by one or two smaller postmentals; male C. pseudomcguirei have 1–5 precloacal pores whereas there are 5–10 such pores in C. mcguirei; and C. pseudomcguirei has 23–25 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe as opposed to 30–35 in C. mcguirei. The most obvious diagnostic difference between these two species in color pattern is the absence of a light, postscapular band in C. pseudomcguirei as opposed to its presence in C. mcguirei; the tendency for C. pseudomcguirei to have a light, vertebral stripe and no such stripe in C. mcguirei; and the absence of black and white caudal bands in C. pseudomcguirei as opposed to their presence in C. mcguirei (Fig. 6). The greatest difference between these two species is the small size of C. pseudomcguirei (maximum SVL 42.5 mm; gravid females 40.0 mm SVL) as opposed to the much larger C. mcguirei (maximum SVL 65.1 mm; gravid females 64.3 mm SVL). These differences and others are summarized across the entire shoulder patch group in Table 4.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek pseudo- meaning “false” or “lie” and affixed to mcguirei to indicate the similarity of Cnemaspis pseudomcguirei to C. mcguirei.
description: Published as part of Grismer, Lee, Ahmad, Norhayati, Onn, Chan Kin, Belabut, Daicus, Wood, Perry L. & Grismer, Jesse L., 2009, Two new diminutive species of Cnemaspis Strauch 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Peninsular Malaysia, pp. 40-56 in Zootaxa 2019 on pages 47-52, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.186045