Cyrtodactylus tahuna sp. nov., a new bent-toed gecko (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Sangihe Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Cyrtodactylus tahuna sp. nov. is a new bent-toed gecko we describe herein based on three specimens from Sangihe, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, an island situated in the northern corner of the Wallacea biodiversity hotspot. The new species is a medium sized Cyrtodactylus with a SVL of up to 78.5 mm in adult males and 79.2 mm in females. It is easily distinguished from all but four species (Cyrtodactylus fumosus, C. halmahericus, C. papuensis, and C. tambora) occurring on Sulawesi as well as in the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands, by possessing precloacal and femoral pores, enlarged precloacal and femoral scales, and lacking transversely enlarged median subcaudal scales. It differs from C. fumosus by the presence of tubercles on the ventrolateral fold, more unkeeled dorsal tubercles (19 versus 4-7) and a pit-like precloacal depression in males (versus groove in males); from C. halmahericus by presence of smaller scales between the enlarged precloacal and femoral scales (versus a continuous series of enlarged precloacofemoral scales) and a continuous series of precloacofemoral pores, as well as the presence of a pit-like precloacal depression in male (versus groove in males), from C. papuensis by possessing a pit-like precloacal depression in males (versus a groove ); and from C. tambora by the presence of tubercles on the dorsal surface of the brachium and the possession of femoral pores. Our contribution, along with several other recent descriptions of bent-toad geckos from Southeast Asia, clearly indicating that the diversity of the genus Cyrtodactylus in Indonesia is still underestimated.

A new species of Bent-toed gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) from the Garo Hills, Meghalaya State, north-east India, and discussion of morphological variation for C. urbanus

“…T he Bent-toed geckos of the genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 represent the most species-rich radiation of squamates with more than 300 species known to date (Grismer et al, 2021). Cyrtodactylus species range from Pakistan, throughout south and south-east Asia, the Indo-Australian Archipelago to northern Australia (e.g., Annandale, 1913;Darevsky et al, 1998;Mahony & Reza, 2008;Mahony et al, 2009aMahony et al, , 2009bWood et al, 2012;Das et al, 2016;Agarwal et al, 2018b;Grismer et al, 2018b;Riyanto et al, 2018;Davis et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020). Until recently, north-east India had only two reported species of Cyrtodactylus, C. gubernatoris (Annandale, 1913), known from only two specimens collected in the Darjeeling hills of northern West Bengal State, and C. khasiensis (Jerdon, 1870), a species long considered to be widespread throughout north-east India and neighbouring regions of southern China, Bangladesh and northern/western Myanmar (Smith, 1935;Ahsan, 1998;Li, 2007).…”

A new species of Dibamus Duméril & Bibron, 1839 (Squamata: Dibamidae) from Pulau Manado Tua, Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…The discovery of D. manadotuaensis sp. nov. together with the large number of other reptile species discoveries from Sulawesi in recent years (e.g., Kuch et al 2007;Hayden et al 2008;Linkem et al 2008;Koch et al 2009a;Riyanto et al 2018) emphasises the need to enhance and intensify systematic taxonomic investigations in the region (Koch 2012). On a broader scale, a large number of species still await discovery within the Wallacea region since it includes numerous isolated and remote islands which are not easily accessible or little explored (Setiadi & Hamidy 2006;Koch et al 2009b;Kaiser et al 2011).…”

Scratching the surface: a new species of Bent-toed gecko (Squamata, Gekkonidae, Cyrtodactylus) from Timor-Leste of the darmandvillei group marks the potential for future discoveries

“…This anomalous pattern could be attributed to missing taxa that have yet to be discovered or taxa that lack genetic representation, particularly from Sulawesi and the Moluccas. There are numerous species of Cyrtodactylus described from Wallacea that have not yet been sequenced including C. batik Iskandar, Rachmansah & Umilaela, 2011, C. celatus Kathriner, Bauer, O'Shea, Sanchez & Kaiser, 2014, C. fumosus (Müller, 1895, C. halmahericus (Mertens, 1929), C. deveti (Brongersma 1948), C. hitchi (Riyanto et al 2016), C. nuaulu (Oliver et al 2009), C. tahuna (Riyanto et al 2018b), C. tanahjampea Riyanto, Kurniati & Engilis, 2018, C. tambora Riyanto, Mulyadi, McGuire, Kusrini, Febylasmia, Basyir & Kaiser, 2017, C. wetariensis (Dunn 1927), and C. wallacei Hayden, Brown, Gillespie, Setiadi, Linkem, Iskandar, Umilaela, Bickford, Riyanto, Mumpuni & McGuire, 2008 Although most Wallacean taxa belong to the darmandvillei group, there is one known exception, C. papeda Riyanto, Faz, Amarasinghe, Munir, Fitriana, Hamidy, Kusrini & Oliver, 2022 from Obi Island in the Moluccas that is part of the marmoratus group. This is a relatively small group comprising species that are distributed in Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, and New Guinea (Grismer et al 2021); and are notably absent in the intervening regions of the Lesser Sunda Islands and Sulawesi.…”