Cyrtodactylus himalayanus: A New Gekkonid Species from Jammu, India

Abstract

Cyrtodactylus himalayanus n.sp. is described from district Doda of Jammu Province (J & K State), India. The species is distinguishable from its nearest known relative C. angularis by the presence of reduced number of infralabials, feebly keeled rounded tubercles on dorsal body surface, well developed transverse subdigital lamellae, shorter hind limb, different color pattern and geographic distribution. * * * Jammu and Kashmir State is comprised of 3 regions; Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, which differ from one another in terrain, altitude, climate and fauna. While knowledge about other faunal elements of the state has grown over the past few years, very little attention has been made to the known reptilian elements of the state since the publication of Fauna of British India by Boulenger (1890) and by Smith (1935). The works of Das, Malhotra and Duda (1964) and of Duda and Koul (1974), have made references only to Kashmir and Ladakh and none to Jammu for distribution of the forms reported by them. The characteristic omission of references to Jammu province in any report on herptiles of the state clearly reflects the lack of any faunistic survey ever having been conducted in this part. Surprisingly (pers. obs.), Jammu is by far the richest of the three regions of the state in reptilian diversity. In a foray for herptiles to Kishtwar (75.7 E; 3.3 N; 1700 M) in the district of Doda, Jammu Province, the junior author collected, among other specimens, eight of Cyrtodactylus