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Abstract
An integrative analysis of genetic, morphological, and ecological data recovered a new granite cave-adapted species, Cyrtodactylus raglaisp. nov., from the Song Giang River Valley, Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Cyrtodactylus raglaisp. nov. is nested within one of two major clades within the irregularis species group where it forms a monophyletic group with C. cryptus and its sister species C. kingsadai. It differs from its sister species by an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 16.5% and 16.8% based on the mitochondrial genes NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and its flanking tRNAs and the first subunit of cytochrome oxidase c (CO1), respectively. Cyrtodactylus raglaisp. nov. is a narrow-range endemic restricted to a riparian, granite cave microhabitat and its overall morphology bears that of other granite cave-dwelling ecomorphs in the genus. The Song Giang River Valley and its associated waterways are currently threatened by the construction of a hydropower station which will negatively impact the surrounding ecosystem. Urgent field surveys in this region are necessary in order to obtain critical data on its biodiversity and importance to conservation efforts in southern Vietnam.
Highlights
The Cyrtodactylus irregularis group is the largest, most taxonomically diverse species group within the genus
Other morphological characters evaluated were whether or not the enlarged femoral scales and precloacal scales were separated by a diastema at the base of the femora or contiguous and if so, if the proximal femoral scales were less than one-half the size of the distal femorals; and the presence or absence of a pocket in the skin webbing between the digits of the hind and forefeet
The Cyrtodactylus irregularis group is composed of two clades which are strongly supported in the Maximum likelihood (ML) analysis (UB 99 and 96, respectively) but only clade 1 is strongly supported in the Bayesian phylogenetic tree (BI) analysis (BPP 0.96)
Summary
The Cyrtodactylus irregularis group is the largest, most taxonomically diverse species group within the genus. It contains 22 nominal species and at least 11 undescribed species (Grismer et al 2021) that range throughout central and southern Vietnam, eastern and southern Laos, and is represented by isolated populations in northern and eastern Cambodia (Fig. 1). Anh The Nguyen et al.: A new granite cave-dwelling Bent-toed Gecko from Vietnam of the Cyrtodactylus irregularis group nominal species occur, most of which are narrow-range endemics (Orlov et al 2007; Nazarov et al 2008, 2012; Ngo and Bauer 2008; Geissler et al 2009; Nguyen et al 2013, 2017; Ziegler et al 2013; Luu et al 2016, 2017; Pauwels et al 2018; Neang et al 2020; Ostrowski et al2020).
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