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Cyrtodactylus pulchellus GRAY, 1827

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Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Malayan Forest Gecko, Banded Bent-toed Gecko
G: Malaiischer Bogenfingergecko 
SynonymCyrtodactylus pulchella GRAY 1827: 56 (nom. nud.)
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus HARDWICKE & GRAY 1827: 224
Cyrtodactylus puchellus — HARDWICKE & GRAY 1835 (in error)
Gymnodactylus pulchellus — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1836: 423
Gymnodactylus pulchellus — STOLICZKA 1873
Gymnodactylus pulchellus — BOULENGER 1885: 46
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — TAYLOR 1963: 714
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — KAHL et al. 1980: 139
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — MANTHEY & GROSSMANN 1997: 226
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — COX et al. 1998: 86
Gonydactylus pulchellus — DAREVSKY et al. 1998
Cyrtodactylus (Cyrtodactylus) pulchellus — RÖSLER 2000: 67
Cyrtodactylus abrae WELLS 2002 (fide Glen Shea, pers. comm. 19 March 2013)
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — GRISMER 2011
Cyrtodactylus pulchellus — GRISMER & QUAH 2019 
DistributionMalaysian Peninsula (Penang Island), Thailand

Type locality: “India” (in error); corrected to "Penang" by Hardwicke and Gray, 1827: 224, see comment. Also restricted to Penang Island by Grismer 2012.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH xxii.91a-b, Singapore. Grismer et al. (2012) refer to BMNH xxii.91a is the holotype, although Gray (1845) lists both specimens, and gives the locality as Singapore (Gray, 1827 had previously given the locality as India). Grismer et al. (2012) redefine the type locality as Penang Island, Peninsular Malaysia, following Cantor (1847). 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): A diagnostis character of Cyrtodactylus is their possession of vertical pupils and bent, padless toes.


Additional details (952 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDistribution: A report from Myanmar (Das and Lim 2000), remains to be verified. Reports from India are in error (A. Bauer, pers. comm. 30 Aug 2011). Not in Singapore or not established there (Figueroa et al. 2023). The restricted type locality “Singapore” by GRAY 1845: 173 is in error.

See Wood et al. 2020: 438 for a map.

Type species: Cyrtodactylus pulchella GRAY 1827 is the type species of the genus Cyrtodactylus GRAY 1827. Gonydactylus Kuhl & Van Hasselt 1822 is a nomen nudum and a synonym of Cyrtodactylus. Goniodactylus Schlegel 1826 is an unjustified emendation. However, Goniodactylus Gray 1842 is a synonym of Cnemaspis Strauch and a junior homonym of Goniodactylus Schlegel (Kluge 1985).

Group: The C. pulchellus complex consists of 17 species. For a list and comparison of species see Wood et al. 2020: 449, Table 5).

Characters: Sitthivong et al. 2019 and Le et al. 2021 present a table of characters for 85 and ~90 species of Cyrtodactylus from Laos and surrounding countries, respectively. Ostrowski et al. 2020 present a character table for Vietnamese, Burmese, Malayan, Indonesian, Philippine, New Guinean / Australian, Indian and Nepali species. For a table of characters across Bornean Cyrtodactylus see Riyanto et al. 2021: 295. For characters of Vietnamese species see Do et al. 2023 (Tables 2, 3).

Synonymy: Cyrtodactylus abrae WELLS 2002 is a nomen nudum fide COUPER & AMEY 2004.

Key: Schneider et al. 2020 provide a key to the Cyrtodactylus species of Laos.

Phylogenetics: for a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Thai Cyrtodactylus see Chomdej et al. 2021, Grismer et al. 2021 (who included an analysis of habitat types) and Grismer et al. 2021: 101 (who subdivided most species into species groups). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “pulchellus” = pretty.

The genus was named after Greek κυρτος kyrtos "curved", from κυπτω kuptō "to stoop", and Greek δακτυλος daktylos "finger, toe. 
References
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