Cnemaspis alwisi MENDIS WICKRAMASINGHE & MUNINDRADASA, 2007
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Cnemaspis alwisi
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Alwis’s day gecko Sinhala: Alwisge diva huna Tamil: Alwisin pahal palli |
| Synonym | Cnemaspis alwisi MENDIS WICKRAMASINGHE & MUNINDRADASA 2007 Cnemaspis alwisi — MANAMENDRA-ARACHCHI et al. 2007 |
| Distribution | Sri Lanka (Retigala and Maragala mountains, Nilgala area) Type locality: Dolukanda, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, (N 07° 37’ 07.8” E 80° 24’ 50.3”, elevation 152m). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: NMSL 2004.9.1, Adult male, 39.92 mm SVL, 23.12.2003, collected by L . J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and D. A. I. Munindradasa. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A medium-sized Cnemaspis (snout to vent length 33–40 mm in adults), which can be distin guished from all known congeners by the following combination of characters: Postmentals separated by a small scale; nostrils are not in contact with first supralabial; 15 supra labials to angle of mid-orbit position and end of jaw at nine supra labials; 32 interorbitals; throat scales smooth; dorsal tubercles 90–92 small, rounded, pentagonal or hexagonal; absence of groups of carinated large scales in dorsal body; spine-like tubercles absent on flanks; 28 midventrals; ventral scales smooth and imbricate; mid-subcaudals large; no pre anal pores; 7–8 femoral pores on each side; 13 subdigital lamellae and 3 basal lamellae in the 4th finger; 15 subdigital lamellae and 3 basal lamellae in the 4th toe; segmented tail; dorsal part of tail with flushed and smooth scales, rarely intermixed with large semicircular prominent tubercles. C. alwisi sp. nov. is congener with C. ranwellai and C. scalpensis from morphological characters. However, C. alwisi can easily be distinguished from both by having two internarsals and low count of lamella in forth finger and toe, and femoral pores, and from C. ranwellai by the separated postmental (more than 90% of C. ranwellai population in the type locality shows contacted postmental), the dorsal tubercle count and ventral scale count, and from C. scalpensis by the intraorbital count, dorsal tubercle count and ventral count, and also from the morphometric analysis. |
| Comment | Group: The original C. alwisi group (4 species: Cnemaspis alwisi, C. punctata, C. rammalensis, and C. rajakarunai sp. nov.) is characterized by femoral pores present and precloacal pores absent, mid subcaudal scales extremely large, and abdominal scales smooth (Wickramasinghe et al. 2016). More recently, Amarasinghe et al. 2021 included 9 species in the alwisi group: C. alwisi, C. hitihamii, C. kohukumburai, C. nilgala, C. punctata, C. rajakarunai, C. rammalensis, C. gunasekarai and C. gunawardanai. They also provide a table of diagnostic characters for the group (Table 2). Distribution: Amarasinghe et al. 2021: 36 provide a map of localities for members of the alwisi group in Fig. 7. |
| Etymology | The species is an eponym in the Latin genitive singular honouring Lyn De Alwis, for his initiative in igniting a research culture in the country leading to Conservation of Wildlife resources. |
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