A new leaf tailed gecko species from northern Madagascar with a preliminary assessment of molecular and morphological variability in the Uroplatus ebenaui group

Abstract

Endemic to Madagascar, the genus Uroplatus of the family Gekkonidae consists of 13 nominal species of leaf-tailed geckos. These forest dwelling lizards are famous for their cryptic and odd appearance. We describe a new species of the Uroplatus ebenaui group from the Montagne d’Ambre massif in northern Madagascar. Uroplatus finiavana sp. nov., is morphologically similar to the sympatric U. ebenaui but differs in multiple character state expressions, among which are a longer tail and an unpigmentated oral mucosa. It also can be differentiated from U. ebenaui and all other Uroplatus species based on a high level of divergence in the mitochondrial ND4 gene and the nuclear C-mos gene, and no instances of haplotype sharing exist in these genes among the analysed species. The new species is relatively abundant at Montagne d'Ambre National Park where at lower elevations (ca. 700 m) it occurs together with U. ebenaui, without any signal of genetic admixture. Records of U. ebenaui in the mountains and forest blocks of northern Madagascar (especially in the Tsaratanana massif) actually represent other candidate species with distinct morphology and characterized by a high genetic divergence from the described species. Beside the description of the new species we discuss the geographic provenance of the holotypes of the nominal species and synonyms in the U. ebenaui group and provide further information on the phylogeny of the U. ebenaui species group including the first incorporation of Uroplatus malama in a molecular data set.