A new insular species of the Cyrtodactylus pulchellus group (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) from Tarutao Island, southern Thailand revealed by morphological and genetic evidence

Korkhwan Termprayoon,Anchalee Aowphol,Perry L Wood Jr,Attapol Rujirawan,Natee Ampai

doi:10.3897/zookeys.1070.73659

Abstract

The bent-toed geckos of the Cyrtodactyluspulchellus group are widely distributed along the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Although taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of this species group have been continuously conducted, only some populations from Thailand have been included, resulting in hidden diversity within this group. In this study, we used morphological and molecular data to clarify the taxonomic status and describe a new population from Tarutao Island, Satun Province, southern Thailand. Cyrtodactylusstellatussp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following morphological characters: body size; tuberculation; number of dark body bands, ventral scales, and femoroprecloacal pores in males; presence of precloacal pores in females; and scattered pattern on dorsum. Phylogenetic analyses of the mitochondrial ND2 gene recovered the new species as the sister species to C.astrum, with an uncorrected pairwise divergence of 9.78–12.37%. Cyrtodactylusstellatussp. nov. is currently only known from Tarutao Island, Thailand. The discovery of this species suggests that the diversity within the C.pulchellus group remains underestimated and future exploration of unsurveyed areas are needed to further the understanding of this group and its geographic range.

Highlights

IntroductionBent-toed geckos in the genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 are geographically widespread and inhabit lowland (e.g., peat swamps, karst formations, and limestone forests) to mountainous regions (> 1,500 m a.s.l) of South Asia to Melanesia, ranging from India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Java, Papua New Guinea to northern Australia (Wood et al 2012; Nielsen and Oliver 2017; Pauwels et al 2018; Purkayastha et al 2020; Riyanto et al 2020; Grismer et al 2020a, 2021a, 2021b)
The discovery of C. stellatus sp. nov. brings the total number of species in the C. pulchellus group to 17, of which four have been reported from Thailand
C. stellatus sp. nov. showed a similar morphological pattern to its sister species, morphological analyses and comparisons of meristic characters revealed that this new species is clearly different from its congeners species of Cyrtodactylus

Summary

Introduction

Bent-toed geckos in the genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 are geographically widespread and inhabit lowland (e.g., peat swamps, karst formations, and limestone forests) to mountainous regions (> 1,500 m a.s.l) of South Asia to Melanesia, ranging from India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Java, Papua New Guinea to northern Australia (Wood et al 2012; Nielsen and Oliver 2017; Pauwels et al 2018; Purkayastha et al 2020; Riyanto et al 2020; Grismer et al 2020a, 2021a, 2021b). Cyrtodactylus pulchellus Gray, 1827 was thought to be a single wide-ranging species across their distributional range, but following an integrative approach many new species have been described (e.g., C. bintangrendah Grismer et al, 2012, C. langkawiensis Grismer et al, 2012, and C. sharkari Grismer et al, 2014) This species group has been recovered as monophyletic and currently contains 16 recognized species, based on multiple phylogenetic studies (Grismer et al 2012, 2014, 2016; Quah et al 2019; Wood et al 2020; Termprayoon et al 2021). We considered this new Cyrtodactylus population from Tarutao Island as distinct and described it as a new species below

Methods

Results

Conclusion