Abstract
A new species of the Cyrtodactyluschauquangensis species group is described based on four specimens collected from the karst formations of Menglian County, Puer City, Yunnan Province, China. The new species can be separated from all other congeners by having a unique combination of morphological characters: a medium-sized body; ventrolateral folds present with interspersed small tubercles; seven precloacal pores in a continuous series in males, absent in females; enlarged femoral scales and femoral pores absent; two postcloacal tubercles on each side; and one or two rows of enlarged subcaudals. Genetically, the new species most closely related to C.wayakonei and the uncorrected sequence divergences of the ND2 gene and its flanking tRNAs between the new species and investigated congeners range from 7.2% to 18.4%.
Highlights
Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 is the most speciose and ecologically diverse gekkotan genus with more than 300 recognized species so far (Grismer et al 2021a, b; Uetz et al 2021)
The Cyrtodactylus chauquangensis Hoang, Orlov, Ananjeva, Johns, Hoang & Dau, 2007 species group, previously C. wayakonei Nguyen, Kingsada, Rösler, Auer & Ziegler, 2010 species group, is a karst ecotype species group, which is distributed in northern Indochina, ranging from northern Thailand and Laos to northwestern and central Vietnam, and to Yunnan Province in southern China (Grismer et al 2021a, b)
The sequences of the three specimens collected from Menglian County, Yunnan, China, were nested within the Cyrtodactylus chauquangensis species group and represented a distinct clade sister to C. wayakonei Nguyen, Kingsada, Rösler, Auer & Ziegler, 2010 with strong support (Fig. 1)
Summary
Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 is the most speciose and ecologically diverse gekkotan genus with more than 300 recognized species so far (Grismer et al 2021a, b; Uetz et al 2021). The Cyrtodactylus chauquangensis Hoang, Orlov, Ananjeva, Johns, Hoang & Dau, 2007 species group, previously C. wayakonei Nguyen, Kingsada, Rösler, Auer & Ziegler, 2010 species group, is a karst ecotype species group, which is distributed in northern Indochina, ranging from northern Thailand and Laos to northwestern and central Vietnam, and to Yunnan Province in southern China (Grismer et al 2021a, b). This species group contains 23 named species to date (Liu and Rao 2021a; Liu et al 2021; Zhang et al 2021)
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