Cnemaspis anslemi KARUNARATHNA & UKUWELA, 2019
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Cnemaspis anslemi?
Cnemaspis anslemi
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Anslems’ Day Gecko Sinhala: nslemge divaseri hoona Tamil: Anslemvin pahalpalli |
| Synonym | Cnemaspis anslemi KARUNARATHNA & UKUWELA 2019 |
| Distribution | Sri Lanka (Samanala Nature Reserve) Type locality: home garden (bordering forest) in Udamaliboda, Kegalle District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka (6.859728°N, 80.448736°E, WGS1984; elevation 485 m, |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: NMSL.2019.14.01, adult male, 34.4 mm SVL (Fig. 2 in Karunarathna & Ukuwela 2019), collected from a tall, straight tree with good canopy cover around 16.00 hrs) on 25 March 2019 by Suranjan Karunarathna and Kanishka Ukuwela. Paratypes. NMSL.2019.14.02, adult female, 32.5 mm SVL collected from an old clay house wall (bordering forest) in Udamaliboda, Kegalle District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka (6.869611°N, 80.457069°E, WGS1984; elevation 634 m, around 10.00 hrs) on 26 March 2019 by Suranjan Karunarathna and Kanishka Ukuwela, and NMSL.2019.14.03, adult female, 30.0 mm SVL (Fig. 3) collected from a tall, straight tree with good canopy cover in a home garden (bordering the forest) in Udamaliboda, Kegalle District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka (6.859728°N, 80.448736°E, WGS1984; elevation 485 m, around 14.00 hrs), on 27 March 2019 by Suranjan Karunarathna and Kanishka Ukuwela. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov. can be readily distinguished from its Sri Lankan congeners by a combination of the following morphological and meristic characteristics, and also color pattern: maximum SVL 34.4 mm; dorsum with homogeneous, smooth granular scales; 2/2 supranasals, one internasal, and 1/1 postnasal present; three enlarged postmentals; postmentals bounded by five chin scales; chin and gular scales smooth, granular, juxtaposed; pectoral and abdominal scales smooth and subimbricate; 3–5 well developed tubercles on posterior flank; 118–122 paravertebral granules linearly arranged; 19–21 belly scales across venter; precloacal pores absent in males, 14–15 femoral pores on each side in males separated by 9–11 unpored interfemoral scales in males, and 2–3 unpored posterior femoral scales in males; 111–117 ventral scales; 87–91 midbody scales; subcaudals smooth, subhexagonal, enlarged, subequal, forming a regular median row; 8–9 supralabials; 8–9 infralabials; 16–17 total lamellae on digit IV of manus, and 20–21 total lamellae on digit IV of pes (Table 1). Dorsal body reticulated brown, black, and white; two large oval patches present on the neck; chin and gular with bright yellow, and femur dirty yellow. |
| Comment | Habitat: This species was restricted to tall straight trees with smooth bark and thick canopy cover, and houses with tall clay walls with crevices. These geckos could climb up to 7 m on vertical surfaces of trees (Fig. 5). They were active during the day time (08.00–17.00 h) and, when disturbed, sought ref- uge in tree tops with crevices. Sympatry: Cnemaspis samanalensis, Cnemaspis sp., Cyrtodactylus triedrus, Cyrtodactylus sp., Gehyra mutilata, Hemidactylus depressus, H. pieresii, H. frenatus, H. parvimaculatus, and Hemiphyllodactylus typus. Similar species: C. gemunu, C. godagedarai, C. phillipsi, and C. scalpensis. |
| Etymology | The specific epithet is an eponym Latinized (anslemi) in the masculine genitive singular, honoring the veteran Sri Lankan herpetologist Kongahage Anslem Lawrence de Silva (the father of modern herpetology in Sri Lanka) for his valuable contributions to Sri Lankan herpetology and for inspiring the next generation of herpetologists, including the authors. |
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