A New Species of Small Bent-Toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkonidae) from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

A new species of Cyrtodactylus is described from foothill forest on the northern edge of the Finisterre Range, northeastern Papua New Guinea. The new species can be distinguished readily from all other Melanesian Cyrtodactylus by the combination of small size (adult SVL <72 mm), males with small number of pores in independent precloacal (11 pores) and femoral series (seven pores on each leg), possession of a patch of enlarged precloacal scales, absence of transversely enlarged subcaudal scales, and light-brown dorsal coloration with indistinct to distinct thin darker-brown transverse bands. The new species is the second-smallest Cyrtodactylus known from New Guinea. We propose that it may be a relic of a formerly insular fauna originating on the Finisterre Terrane but now accreted onto mainland New Guinea.