Abstract
AbstractAn integrative taxonomic analysis of Sundaic populations ofGekko smithiifrom the Thai-Malaya Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo recovered four deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages that are separated by major geographic barriers (mountains and seaways). Furthermore, they bear a number of concordant statistically significant differences in meristic and morphometric features, morphospatial separation in multivariate space, and discrete differences in color pattern.Gekko smithiisensu strictois restricted to southern Thailand south of the Isthmus of Kra and Peninsular Malaysia west of the Banjaran (mountain range) Titiwangsa, being that the type locality is on Penang Island, Penang.Gekko hulksp. nov.is a new species from extreme southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia east of the Banjaran Titiwangsa and five east coast islands—the type locality being Pulau (island) Tioman, Pahang. Gekko cf. albofasciolatus is tentatively used to include Bornean populations west of the Iran Mountains in Sabah and Sarawak which, in the absence of molecular data, cannot unequivocally be separated morphologically fromG. albofasciolatusfrom the type locality at Banjarmasin, Kalimantan, Indonesia east of the Iran Mountains. In the absence of molecular data,G. albomaculatusis resurrected to include mainland Sumatran, Nias Island, and Banyak Islands populations which, based on their morphology, cannot be separated from descriptions ofG. albomaculatusfrom the type locality of Bangka Island, 15 km off the southeast coast of mainland Sumatra. Further integrative analyses of all Sumatran and Bornean populations are currently underway as well as the enigmatic Wallacean populations from Sulawesi. Data are presented that strongly suggest all references toG. smithiifrom Java stem from a 151 year-old misidentification of a specimen ofG. geckoof unknown provenance. Additionally, there are no vouchered records ofG. smithiifrom Myanmar. The phylogeographic patterns of Sundaic populations of theG. smithiicomplex are concordant with those of a plethora of other Sundaic lineages.
Highlights
The genus Gekko Laurenti, 1768 is an ecologically and morphologically diverse radiation of scansorial, nocturnal lizards comprising at least 82 species that collectively range throughout Southeast and East Asia to western Melanesia (Uetz et al 2021; Wood et al 2020a)
The general lineage concept (GLC: de Queiroz 2007) adopted proposes that a species constitutes a population of organisms evolving independently from other such populations owing to a lack of gene flow
The maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses recovered trees with identical strongly supported topologies delimiting four major lineages separated by relatively long branch lengths that correspond to distinct geographic regions (Fig. 2)
Summary
The genus Gekko Laurenti, 1768 is an ecologically and morphologically diverse radiation of scansorial, nocturnal lizards comprising at least 82 species that collectively range throughout Southeast and East Asia to western Melanesia (Uetz et al 2021; Wood et al 2020a). Based on an extensive integrative analysis, Rösler et al (2011) constructed six phenotypic species groups within the genus Gekko. Two of these groups, G. gecko and G. japonicus, were recognized by Wood et al (2020a) in a phylogenomic taxonomy that constructed seven subgenera and necessitated the synonymy of Luperosaurus Gray, 1845 and Ptychozoon Kuhl and van Hasselt, 1822 with Gekko. Included among the seven species of the subgenus Gekko, is G. smithii Gray, 1942, a large widespread, aggressive, scansorial, lowland, forest-adapted species and semi-human commensal found throughout much of Sundaland from southern Thailand south of the Isthmus of Kra through Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to Sumatra, Borneo, and Sulawesi (Koch et al 2009; Grismer 2011a,b) (Fig. 1). Reports of G. smithii from Java and Myanmar are likely erroneous (see below)
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