A new insular species of the Cyrtodactylus pulchellus group (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) from Tarutao Island, southern Thailand revealed by morphological and genetic evidence

Abstract

The bent-toed geckos of the Cyrtodactylus pulchellus group are widely distributed along the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Although taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of this species group have been continuously conducted, only some populations from Thailand have been included, resulting in hidden diversity within this group. In this study, we used morphological and molecular data to clarify the taxonomic status and describe a new population from Tarutao Island, Satun Province, southern Thailand. Cyrtodactylus stellatussp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following morphological characters: body size; tuberculation; number of dark body bands, ventral scales, and femoroprecloacal pores in males; presence of precloacal pores in females; and scattered pattern on dorsum. Phylogenetic analyses of the mitochondrial ND2 gene recovered the new species as the sister species to C. astrum, with an uncorrected pairwise divergence of 9.78–12.37%. Cyrtodactylus stellatussp. nov. is currently only known from Tarutao Island, Thailand. The discovery of this species suggests that the diversity within the C. pulchellus group remains underestimated and future exploration of unsurveyed areas are needed to further the understanding of this group and its geographic range.

A new species in the Cyrtodactylus oldhami group (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Kanchanaburi Province, western Thailand

“…The discovery of Cyrtodactylus monilatus sp. nov. brings the number of species in the C. oldhami group to eight and the total number of Cyrtodactylus in Thailand to 40 ( Termprayoon et al 2021 ; Uetz et al 2022 ). Cyrtodactylus monilatus sp.…”

“…The genus Cyrtodactylus is monophyletic and currently contains 330 recognized species ( Uetz et al 2022 ) within 32 monophyletic species groups that have been delimited based on molecular data ( Grismer et al 2022 ). Most of the known species diversity is in mainland Southeast Asia ( Wood et al 2012 ; Grismer et al 2018b , 2021b ; Uetz et al 2022 ), including Thailand, which is home to 39 species or nearly 9% of the described diversity (e.g., Chomdej et al 2020 ; Grismer et al 2020 ; Termprayoon et al 2021 ; Uetz et al 2022 ). Although the number of recognized species in the genus has rapidly increased in recent years, the true species diversity of the genus is still underestimated, and many known molecular lineages await formal description as species ( Brennan et al 2017 ; Chomdej et al 2021 ; Grismer et al 2021b ).…”