Cnemaspis monticola MANAMENDRA-ARACHCHI, BATUWITA & PETHIYAGODA, 2007

Find more photos by Google images search:

Higher Taxa	Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies
Common Names
Synonym	Cnemaspis monticola MANAMENDRA-ARACHCHI, BATUWITA & PETHIYAGODA 2007
Distribution	India (Kerala) Type locality: “Wynaad” (Kerala State, south-western India),
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: BMNH 74.4.29.372 (adult female), 26.0 mm SVL, purchased from Colonel Beddome (formerly a syntype of C. tropidogaster). Paratypes. BMNH 74.4.29.373, SVL 33.1 mm, adult female; BMNH 74.4.29.374, SVL 18.3 mm, sub-adult female, same collection data as holotype.
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: Cnemaspis monticola is distinguished from its peninsular Indian and Sri Lankan congeners by a combination of the following characters: maximum SVL 33.1 mm; paired postmentals separated by a small scale; each postmental bounded by 3 scales including medial scale; dorsal scales heterogeneous; 5 spine-like tubercles present on flank; gulars carinate, other ventrals smooth, rounded, ventral surface of thigh smooth; preanal and femoral pores absent in females; subcaudals enlarged, intermixed with smooth, carinate scales; supralabials to angle of jaws, 8; subdigital lamellae on digit IV of pes, 18 [from MANAMENDRA-ARACHCHI et al. 2007].
Comment	Abundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024.
Etymology	The species name, ‘monticola’, is Latin for ‘inhabitant of the mountains’, an allusion to the type locality, the Wynaad Hills of Kerala State, India.
References	KHANDEKAR, AKSHAY, TEJAS THACKERAY, and ISHAN AGARWAL 2021. A new small-bodied, polymorphic Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) allied to C. monticola Manamendra-Arachchi, Batuwita & Pethiyagoda, 2007 from the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Zootaxa 4950 (3): 501-527 - get paper here KHANDEKAR, AKSHAY; TEJAS THACKERAY, ISHAN AGARWAL 2020. A new cryptic Cnemaspis Strauch (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from an isolated granite hill on the Mysore Plateau, Karnataka, India. Zootaxa 4845 (4): 509–528 - get paper here Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here Manamendra-Arachchi, Kelum; Batuwita, Sudesh & Pethiyagoda, Rohan 2007. A taxonomic revision of the Sri Lankan day-geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae: Cnemaspis), with description of new species from Sri Lanka and southern India. Zeylanica 7 (1): 9-122 Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zoltán T. Nagy, Cristiano d 2017. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Diversity and Distributions - get paper here Palot, M.J. 2015. A checklist of reptiles of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(13): 8010–8022 - get paper here Venugopal, P.D. 2010. An updated and annotated list of Indian lizards (Reptilia: Sauria) based on a review of distribution records and checklists of Indian reptiles. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2 (3): 725-738. - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List Google images

Is it interesting? Share with others:

As link to this species use URL address:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Cnemaspis&species=monticola

without field 'search_param'. Field 'search_param' is used for browsing search result.

Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator