Cnemaspis boulengeri STRAUCH, 1887
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Cnemaspis boulengeri
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Con Dao round eyed gecko, Boulenger's Rock Gecko |
| Synonym | Cnemaspis boulengerii STRAUCH 1887 Gonatodes glaucus SMITH 1921 (fide SMITH 1935) Cnemaspis boulengeri — M. A. SMITH 1935: 76 Cnemaspis boulengerii — KLUGE 1993 Cnemaspis (Cnemaspis) boulengerii — RÖSLER 2000: 62 Cnemaspis boulengerii — NGUYEN et al. 2009 |
| Distribution | Vietnam (Poulo Condor), Cochinchina, S Chinese Sea Type locality: Poulo Condore Island in the South Chinese Sea. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: unknown (fide NGUYEN et al. 2009) |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Cnemaspis is characterized by having slender digits with recurved clawed; two distal phalanges which are compressed, forming an angle with the basal portion of the digits, the lower surface having rows of plates; body more or less depressed; scales granular or tubercular above; tail is more or less cylindrical; pupils rounded; eyelid distinct all around the eye; males with or without precloacal or femoral pores; a well developed hypoischium, post-anal bones and sacs, and a reduced hyoid apparatus, with only one pair of basibranchials; the presence of three or four sternal ribs; interclavicles well developed and cruciform (in the Oriental species) or much reduced and with only a very small transverse arm (in the African species); adhesive toe pads absent (in the Oriental species) or present (in the African species); leaf toes and paraphalanges absent, having diurnal habits predominantly (Smith 1935; Gamble et al. 2012, Sayyed et al. 2019). |
| Comment | Type species: Cnemaspis boulengerii STRAUCH 1887 is the type species of the genus Cnemaspis STRAUCH 1887. “The genus Cnemaspis... the members of which are distinguished from other gekkonids in possessing a suite of characteristics, including round pupil, non-dilated clawed digits, a distinct eye-lid-structure around the eyes and diurnal habits.” (DAS 1993). Note that this diagnosis is only valid in Southeast Asia. Characters: Karunarathna et al. 2019 provide a table of characters of all 36 Sri Lankan species. See Murthy et al. 2019 for a table of Femoral and Preanal Pore patterns, as well as dorsal scalation and spinal tubercles in the genus. Behavior: While most Cnemaspis species are diurnal some are nocturnal (Nguyen et al. 2020). Key: Amarasinghe & Karunarathna 2020, and Amarasinghe et al. 2021 provide a key to diminutive day geckos of the genus Cnemaspis in Sri Lanka. Karunarathna et al. 2021: 203 provide a table or morphological characters across Sri Lankan Cnemaspis. Iskandar et al. 2017 have a key to the “diminiutive” Cnemaspis from South-East Asia. Groups: Cnemaspis has been divided into several groups, including the siamensis group which had 13 species in 2022 (Rujirawan et al. 2022) and 14 species listed by Ampai et al. 2023 (see C. siamensis for details). Agarwal et al. 2017 defined the kandiana and podihuna clades in Sri Lanka. Cyriac et al. 2020 found 7 clades among Indian Cnemaspis: the goaensis, gracilis, indica, giri, littoralis, wynadensis, and the “Southern Western Ghats” clades. Habitat: for habitat data across species of the genus Cnemaspis in Sri Lanka see Amarasinghe et al. 2021: Table 4. |
| Etymology | Named after George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937), herpetologist at the British Museum of Natural History, London. |
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