Cyrtopodion arachnoideum NAZAROV, NABIZADEH, RAJABIZADEH, MOADDAB, NIKOLAEV, SOLOVYEVA, MELNIKOV, ANANJEVA, POYARKOV & RATSEGAR-POUYANI, 2026
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Cyrtopodion arachnoideum?
Cyrtopodion arachnoideum
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Cyrtopodion arachnoideum NAZAROV, NABIZADEH, RAJABIZADEH, MOADDAB, NIKOLAEV, SOLOVYEVA, MELNIKOV, ANANJEVA, POYARKOV & RATSEGAR-POUYANI 2026: 95 |
| Distribution | Iran (Sistan-Baluchestan) Type locality: Iran, Sistan-Baluchestan Prov., 100 km NW of Zahedan, near Nusratabad Vill. (29.833334° N 59.883335° E; elevation 1300 m a.s.l.), |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. Adult male, ZMMU R-14996 (field No. RAN 290) collected on April 30, 2005, by Roman Nazarov, Alexey Polilov, Alexey Tikhonov, and Mahdi Radjabizadeh. Paratypes. Two adult females, ZMMU R-14997 (field No. RAN 289), ZMMU R-15991 (RAN 293) and one male MMTT RAN 291 with the same collection data as the holotype (RAN 291 and RAN 293 to be deposited in MMTT). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: SVLmax for males 47.8 mm, TailL 60 mm and for females 51.4 mm and 65 mm, respectively; snout blunt-pointed, eyes large; rounded smooth dorsal tubercles usually forming 10 rows across middorsum, 24 – 26 tubercles in paravertebral row between occipital region and middle of sacrum; dorsal scales relatively large, dorsal tubercles (0.4 mm) about 2 – 3 times larger than surrounding scales; enlarged tubercles present on the dorsal surface of hindlimbs and absent on the forelimbs; tail segments weakly differentiated; subcaudal plates in single median row; on distal third of non-regenerated tail the subcaudal scales are bifurcated (Fig. 4); 22 – 32 abdominal scales across middle of the belly; 130 – 141 mid-ventral scales along the belly. Males usually have 4 welldeveloped precloacal pores, located on enlarged scales; no enlarged femoral scales or femoral pores; large triangular mental plate, three pairs of postmentals, first pair in broad contact. Limbs and tail elongate, thin and gracile. The dorsal pattern consists of 5 – 6 wide, transverse, three-peaked dark bands. Interspaces between bands approximately same size or sometimes wider than the bands; 7 – 9 wide, dark, transverse bands on the tail; last third of the tail whitish without bands. Head coloration greyish with unclear dark, small, irregular spots. The nuchal loop is usually not recognizable but sometimes discrete elements of this pattern are discernible from the posterior margin of the orbit and the occipital region. The dorsal patterns of the limbs formed by transverse dark bands. (Nazarov et al. 2026) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about between half a page and a page) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material. |
| Comment | Status: this species should be considered as preliminary, given that the authors only used a COI fragment for sequencing and did not compare it to all Iranian species (which are also not all shown on the map). |
| Etymology | Named after the elongated and thin limbs with the thin tail of new species resemble spider-shaped creature, hence we name the species arachnoideum — from Ancient Greek arachne = “spider”. |
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