Cnemaspis argus Dring 1979
Creators: name: Grismer, Lee
name: Wood, Perry L.
name: Anuar, Shahrul
name: Riyanto, Awal
name: Ahmad, Norhayati
name: Muin, Mohd A.
name: Sumontha, Montri
name: Grismer, Jesse L.
name: Onn, Chan Kin
name: Quah, Evan S. H.
name: Pauwels, Olivier S. A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Cnemaspis
Cnemaspis argus

description: Cnemaspis argus Dring, 1979   
Argus Rock Gecko  
Fig. 30  
 Holotype. BM 1974.4911. Type locality: “ 790 m on the east ridge of Gunung Lawit”, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia.   
 Diagnosis. Maximum SVL 65.2 mm; eight or nine supralabials; eight or nine infralabials; keeled ventral scales; 6–10 pore-bearing precloacal scales; 26–32 paravertebral tubercles; tubercles not linearly arranged, present on flanks; tubercles absent from lateral caudal furrows; no ventrolateral caudal tubercles, lateral row of caudal tubercles present; caudal tubercles not encircling tail; subcaudals keeled, no enlarged median scale row; 1–4 postcloacal tubercles on each side of tail base; no enlarged femoral or subtibial scales; subtibials keeled; no enlarged submetatarsal scales on first toe; 31–35 subdigital fourth toe lamellae; distinct black and white bands on tail (Tables 6,7).   
 Color pattern (Fig. 30). Dorsal ground color greyish yellow; interorbital region green; yellow markings on head; paired, black, paravertebral, subelliptically shaped blotches extending from nape to tail and transforming into black bands; large patches of yellow tubercles and short transverse bars on flanks; limbs bearing faded, alternating, dark and light bands; non-regenerated tail bearing black and white bands; all ventral surfaces dull-white.   
 Distribution. Cnemaspis argus is known from Gunung Lawit (Dring 1979) and newly reported here from Gunung Tebu, Terengganu 10 km to the north along the same mountain range (Fig. 3).   
 Natural history. Dring (1979) reported Cnemaspis argus to occur at 790 m in elevation in primary forest from Gunung Lawit and Grismer (2011a) considered it an upland endemic that would probably never be seen again because the trail up to Gunung Lawit had become overgrown and lost. However, we did find additional populations from the base of Gunung Lawit at 230 m in elevation and on Gunung Tebu from 40 m in elevation at Hutan Lipur Lata Belatan up to 750 m near the peak. All lizards were seen on large granite rocks within the forest (Fig. 30). These data indicate that C. argus is not an upland endemic but a microhabitat specialist restricted to granite rocks wherever they may occur within its range. During the day, lizards remain wary and occur on the shady, vertical or inverted surfaces. They are in dark in overall coloration and difficult to approach. During the evening hours, lizards are much lighter in color and far less wary, tending to venture farther out onto the open areas of the boulders where they appear generally inactive.   
 Relationships. Cnemaspis argus is most closely related to the sister species C. karsticola and C. perhentianensis (Fig. 2).   
 Material examined. Malaysia: Terengganu, Gunung Lawit BM 1974.4910 – 11 (type series; photographs LSUDPC 2276–78), LSUHC 8304; Gunung Tebu LSUHC 10834–35, 10858–59.
description: Published as part of Grismer, Lee, Wood, Perry L., Anuar, Shahrul, Riyanto, Awal, Ahmad, Norhayati, Muin, Mohd A., Sumontha, Montri, Grismer, Jesse L., Onn, Chan Kin, Quah, Evan S. H. & Pauwels, Olivier S. A., 2014, Systematics and natural history of Southeast Asian Rock Geckos (genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887) with descriptions of eight new species from Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, pp. 1-147 in Zootaxa 3880 (1) on pages 62-63, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3880.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4949564