Cnemaspis ranwellai Wickramasinghe, 2006, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mendis Wickramasinghe, L. J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Gekkonidae
Cnemaspis
Cnemaspis ranwellai

description: Cnemaspis ranwellai sp. nov.
(Figs. 2–4, Tables 1–3)
Holotype. NMSL 2004.1.1 (Adult male), from Gannoruwa, Kandy, Sri Lanka, (N 07º 16’ 56.7” E 080º 35’ 54.0”, elevation 576 m), 27.12.2003, 11.20, collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe (LJMW).
Paratypes, NMSL 2004.2.1 (Adult female), from Gannoruwa, Kandy, Sri Lanka, (N 07º 17’ 04.3”; E 080º 35’ 59.9”, elevation 659 m), 27.12.2003, 11.50 a.m.; NMSL 2004.3.1(Adult male)), from Gannoruwa, Kandy, Sri Lanka, (N 07° 17’ 08.8”; E 080° 35’ 57.2”; elevation 725 m), 27.12.2003, 1346; NMSL 2004.4.1 (Adult female), from Gannoruwa, Kandy, Sri Lanka, (N 07º 17’ 07.1”; E 080º 35’ 58.2”; elevation 716 m) 27.12.2003, 1637, collected by LJMW
Diagnosis. A medium-sized Cnemaspis (average snout to vent length 31 mm in an adult male, and 37 mm in an adult female), which can be distinguished from all known congeners in showing the following combination of characters: nostrils are not in contact with first supralabial; nostrils smaller than the ear opening, eight supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at 12–13 supra labials; dorsal tubercles 56–58; dorsal tubercles small, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; with spine-like tubercles on flanks; midventrals 22; ventral smooth; subcaudals enlarged; no preanal pores; 12–15 femoral pores on each side; 13–15 subdigital lamellae and 5–6 basal lamellae in the 4th digit; a dorsally prominent narrow black stripe on the neck, with a sharp yellowish margin; throat of males bright yellow, with small black stripes and / or spots; infra-labial margins of males with black stripes; tail cylindrical, with spine-like tubercles on the dorsal and lateral sides.
Description of holotype. Adult male (figs. 2–3) snout to vent length 30.55 mm, head depressed and narrow (HD / HL ratio 0.587), head elongated and large (HL / SVL ratio 0.188), distinct from the neck. Snout long (SE / HW ratio 0.704), longer than the eye width (EW / SE ratio 0.39). Eye relatively large (EW / HL ratio 0.271). Ear opening small (EL / HL ratio 0.109), eye to ear distance is greater than the width of the eye (EE / EW ratio 3.487).
Rostral is large, and is partially divided. There are three internasals, with the mid scale being equal in size to the nostril, and the other two are larger. The supranasal and postnasal consist of one smooth rounded scale each and are bigger than the nostril, but slightly smaller than internasal. The head is covered with round, pentagonal or hexagonal shaped tubercle scales. These tubercle scales becomes progressively larger from the interorbitals towards the anterior region, but slightly smaller than the mid internasal scale. Small tubercles are located towards the lower part of the interorbitals. There are 32 interorbital scales. The mid interorbital scales are longer and slightly larger than the outer ones. The suprachilaris are slightly larger. The nostril is round, and is not connected with the supralabials. The nostril and the 1st supralabial are separated by a postnasal. There are 12 supralabials at the base of the jaw, with eight at the mid orbit point. The 1st supralabial is relatively larger, while the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th are similar in size and the 6th slightly smaller. The rest become smaller in size towards the posterior end. The dorsal tubercles are small, rounded, pentagonal and hexagonal in shape, and similar in size. There are 58 dorsal tubercles at the mid region of the body. Spine-like tubercles are present on the flanks. Mental scale is large, sub-triangular. The two pairs of pentagonal postmentals are smaller than the mental. The first postmental pair is separated by one small scale, and is connected with the first infralabial. The second postmental pair is smaller, and is connected with the 1st and 2nd infralabials. There are nine infralabials towards the jaw end, with six of them towards mid orbit point. The 1st infralabial is bigger, 2nd and 3rd are similar sized, while the rest becomes progressively smaller in size. The 1st–4th infralabials are longer than the 5th one. The ear holes are oval shaped, bigger than nostrils, but smaller than eyes. There are 16 small scales around the ear hole. The scales in the throat are smooth, pentagonal/ hexagonal in shape, the anterior scales being larger than the posterior scales. The gular scales are smooth. The ventrals of the mid ventral area consist of 22 scales, smooth and smaller than the postmentals. The scales in ventral portion of fore and hind limbs are smooth, with the scales in the hind limb being relatively larger than those of the forelimb. The preanal is slightly larger than the anal. The mid subcaudals are large. There are 15 rows of small scales between the 1st large subcaudal and anus. Although the mid subcaudals are hexagonal in shape, the lower border appears to be circular. This feature becomes prominent towards the tip of the tail. The subcaudals are devoid of keels. The tip of the tail shows signs of regeneration. There are 59 subcaudals (27 in the original tail and 32 in the regenerated segment). The dorsal area of the tail (from base to mid region) consists of a groove. The tail possesses spine-like tubercles, which are more prominent in the lateral side than the dorsal side. The digits are slender, elongate and clawed, while inter-digital webs are absent. The distal sub-digital formulae include 4>3>2>5>1 (fingers) and 4>3>5>2>1 (toes) (Fig. 4).
The body colour in the dorsal side is light brownish yellow. There is a thin black line between the inter-orbital area. There is a prominent black rectangular elongated mark in the dorsal side of the neck, which is longer than the pupil of the eye. The mid dorsal area of the body is lighter than the lateral sides. Irregular black lines occur on either side of the spinal cord. These lateral lines unite in the mid dorsal area and become prominent towards posterior area of the body. The granular scales in the dorsal area also contain black spots, resulting the black lateral lines not being isolated. However, six lateral black lines are clearly visible below the prominent dorsal black rectangular square of the neck, and extend towards the dorsal base of the hind limbs. The original part of the tail is light in colour, with 12 irregular lateral lines, first of which shows a ‘W’ shape, located in the dorsal side of the tail base. The lower portion of this ‘W’ line is more sharp. The scales of the tail also consist of small black spots. The lateral area of head contains three prominent black lines, the first being located in front of the eye, extending towards the neck. The second line extends from the 4th and 5th supralabials towards the anterior region of the eye. A similar line extends from below the eye towards the end of the mouth. The borders of the supralabials are dark black, with a yellow interior. The sides of the rostral scale and border of the nostrils are yellow in colour. The supraciliaries are also yellow. The pupil is ellipsoid and black, with the surrounding area being yellowish gold. The colour of the lateral area of the body is similar to the dorsal side, with small black spots scattered randomly. In the forelimb, the area extending from the axilla to the wrist bares five cross bars, of which the 3rd bar in the elbow area is broader and prominent. The two lower bars are also more prominent than the first two cross bars. The margins of the scales connecting with the claws of each limb are black in colour. The fingers in the forelimbs also contain small black cross bars; two bars in the first finger, three bars in the second finger, five bars each in the 3rd and 4th fingers and three bars in the 5th finger. In the hind limbs, five irregular black cross bars extend from the groin to ankle region, though these are not very clear. A single prominent fine black line is located in the thigh region, up to the knee. The toes also contain small black bars; two, three, four, five and four in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th toes,
Number Finger 1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 1R 2R 3R 4R 5R
NMSL20040101 FoL 1/9 3/11 4 /14 5/13 5 /10 1/9 3/11 3 /14 5/13 5 /10
HiL 1/10 4 /11 4/14 6 /14 2/14 1 /10 4/11 4 /13 6/15 2 /14
NMSL20040201 FoL 1/9 3/11 4 /13 5/12 4 /11 1/9 3/11 3 /13 5/12 4 /11
HiL 1/11 4 /12 4/15 6 /14 3/15 1 /11 4/12 4 /14 6/14 3 /15
NMSL20040301 FoL 1/9 3/10 3 /13 4/12 3 / 10 1/9 3/11 3 /13 4/12 3 /11
HiL 1/10 3 /12 4/14 5 /13 2/13 1 /10 3/12 4 /13 5/14 3 /13
NMSL20040401 FoL 1/10 3 /11 3/13 4 /12 4/10 1 /10 3/11 3 /12 5/12 4 /10
HiL 1/11 4 /11 4/13 6 /13 2/13 1 /11 4/11 4 /13 6/13 2 /13 Etymology. The species is named after Dr. Sanjeewa Ranwella, a Sri Lankan medical doctor by profession, and a dedicated naturalist, who passed away in a tragic accident in 2003. Vernacular names, Sinhala name- Ranwellage Diwa Huna, English name- Ranwella’s Day Gecko.
Comparisons. The combination of the characteristic throat colour in males, dorsal black stripe in the neck region and 12–15 femoral pores, enables to differentiate the new species from the other species of Cnemaspis in the island. According to identification keys to the Sri Lankan species of Cnemaspis by Deraniyagala (1944,1953) and Taylor (1953), the new species is similar to C. jerdoni scalapensis (Ferguson, 1877) in possessing the following combination of characters: similar body size (snout to vent lengths 30–40mm); enlarged mid-subcaudals; up to 15 femoral pores; 12 supralabials at the base of the jaw; smooth ventral scales and joint or separated postmentals; the nostril are not connected with the supralabials; the size of the anterior scales in the gular region is large and similar; possess spine like tubercles on the flanks; absence of pre-anal pores. The new species can be easily distinguished from the aforementioned species by the following characteristics: 22–24 (Vs 28–30) ventral scales at mid ventral region; 56–58 dorsal tubercles on mid body area (Vs 70); lamella of the 4th finger in forelimb 4–5 (Vs 3); lamella of 4th toe of hind limb 5–6 (Vs 2–3); possess spine-like tubercles in tail region (Vs slightly large pointed tubercles); completely different colours and markings in the throat region and the dorsal neck region; a prominent black stripe in the dorsal neck region.
The following combination of characters clearly differentiate the new species from C. kandiana (Kelaart, 1852) occurring in Sri Lanka: enlarged mid sub caudals, absence of pre-anal pores (Vs 3–4 pre-anals); 12–15 femoral pores (Vs 3–5); absence of keels in the scales of the gular region. It could be separated from C. tropidogaster (Boulenger 1885) by absence of keels in the ventral scales and enlarged mid subcaudals without keels. The characteristics that distinguishes it from C. podihuna (Deraniyagala, 1944) include absence of pre-anal pores (Vs 3–5 prenal pores), 12–15 femoral pores (Vs 4–5), and absence of glandular scales. Among its other South Asian congeners, it differs from C.
Abbreviations: HL, head length; HD, head depth; HW, head width; SE, snout to distance; IO, interorbital distance; EW, eye width; SN, snout to nostril; IN, internarial distance; E–N, eye to nostril distance; NW, nostril width; NED, nostril to ear distance; EaW, ear width; EL, ear length; SED, snout to ear distance; E–E, ear to ear distance; FL, forearm length; TBL,tibia length; AG, axilla to groin; SVL, snout to vent length; TL, tail length; TW, tail width; TD, tail depth.
assamensis Das and Sengupta, 2001 by possessing preanal and femoral pores (Vs absent) and larger SV length. It differs from C. beddomei (Theobald, 1876) by the absence of keels in ventral scales, and smaller SV length. It could be separated from C.boiei (Gray, 1842) by presence of femoral pores, and enlarged subcaudals. C. goanensis Sharma, 1976 differs from the new species in possessing keels in scales of the gular region and larger SV length. C. indica Gray 1846 is quite similar to the new species, but does not possess preanal pores, and 4–5 femoral pores. The new species distinguished from C. littoralis (Jerdon, 1853) in the absence of preanal pores and a larger number of femoral pores in the latter. It distinguished from C. mysoriensis (Jerdon, 1853) by the absence of preanal pores, and absence of keels in gular scales, and from C. nairi Inger, Marx & Koshy, 1984 by the presence of femoral pores and larger size of the latter. C. ornata (Beddome, 1870) differs from the new species in having preanal pores, and normal sub-caudals, while it also has a longer SV length. C. otai Das & Bauer, 2000 possess both preanal and femoral pores, and a lesser number of ventral scares compared to the new species. C. sisparensis (Theobald, 1876) and C. anaikattiensis Mukherjee, Bhupathy & Nixon, 2005 differs from the new species in relatively larger SV length, and 7–8 femorals while. C. wynadensis (Beddome, 1870) possess a lesser amount of femoral pores (4–6), compared to the new species. C. yercaudensis Das and Bauer, 2000 differs from the new species in having pre anal pores, and smaller SV length. C. heteropholis Bauer, 2002 differs from new species by having 22 ventrals or more and body size of C. heteropholis is much larger than the new species and the throat colour of the new species is yellow whereas in C. heteropholis Bauer, 2002 it is strongly mottled with brown. The new species differs from C. indraneildasii Bauer, 2002, by having supra labials that are not in contact with the nostrils. The new species differs from C.indraneildasii Bauer, 2002 by having 22 ventrals against 20 ventrals of the latter.
Ecological notes. C. ranwellai sp. nov. sympatric with C. kandiana in its type locality in Gannoruwa forest in Kandy District. It occurs in relatively undisturbed dense semi-evergreen forest, and also in home gardens with large trees and is arboreal and diurnal in habits. Unlike C. kandiana which occurs in trees and rocks, the new species was never found in rocky areas. A large colony of about 30–50 individuals were observed in a Ficus sp., while a smaller number of individuals were observed in exotic Mahogany (Sweitenia macrophylla) and Jak (Artocarpus heterophyllus) trees. Juveniles and eggs were observed throughout the year. The type locality (Gannoruwa forest) harbours a healthy population of the new species. However, frequent man-made fires in the area could pose a threat to this species.
description: Published as part of Mendis Wickramasinghe, L. J., 2006, A new species of Cnemaspis (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from Sri Lanka, pp. 19-33 in Zootaxa 1369 on pages 21-30, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.174875