Cyrtodactylus urbanus PURKAYASTHA, DAS, BOHRA, BAUER & AGARWAL, 2020
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Cyrtodactylus urbanus
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Urban bent-toed gecko |
| Synonym | Cyrtodactylus urbanus PURKAYASTHA, DAS, BOHRA, BAUER & AGARWAL 2020 |
| Distribution | India (Assam, Meghalaya) Type locality: Basistha, Guwahati, Assam State, India (26.106301°N, 91.787199° E), 106 m elevation above sea level |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. VR/ERS/ZSI/683, adult male, SVL 71.9 mm, collected on 13 June 2018, by Jayaditya Purkayastha. Paratypes. Adult females (VR/ERS/ZSI/684, SVL 74.3 mm; VR/ERS/ZSI/688, SVL 75.6 mm and VR/ERS/ ZSI/689, SVL 73.2 mm), Adult males (VR/ERS/ZSI/685, SVL 65.4 mm; VR/ERS/ZSI/686, SVL 68.6 mm; VR/ ERS/ZSI/687, SVL 70.3 mm); same collection details as holotype. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis and comparison with regional congeners. Cyrtodactylus urbanus sp. nov. can be distinguished from regional congeners by its moderate body size (SVL to 74.0 mm); 9–11 supralabials; 8–10 infralabials; 21–24 longitudinal rows of bluntly conical, feebly keeled dorsal tubercles; tubercles extending beyond base of tail; 38–45 paravertebral tubercles; 30–34 mid-ventral scales; no precloacal groove; 9–12 precloacal pores in a contiguous series, no femoral pores or pits; a row of enlarged scales above and below precloacal pore-bearing scales, slightly larger than pore-bearing scales;. There are 5–6 basal lamellae, 1–4 broken lamellae and 8–10 distal lamellae under 4th finger and 6–7 basal lamellae, 2–3 broken lamellae and 10–12 distal lamellae under 4th toe. Subcaudal scalation of original tail without enlarged plates. Dorsal pattern of 6–7 longitudinal rows of two indistinct transverse pale buff blotches outlined by light edges, light mid-dorsal line. Tail with alternating dark and lighter bands. Iris in life silver-grey with brown reticulations. Cyrtodactylus urbanus sp. nov. can be differentiated from other members of the C. khasiensis group by the following characters (see Table 5): 9–12 precloacal pores in males (versus 10–28 precloacofemoral pores in C. ayeyarwadyensis; 26–39 precloacofemoral pores which may be interrupted by up to 11 unpored scales in C. guwahatiensis; 29–37 precloacofemoral pores in C. tripuraensis) and 30–34 MVSR (versus 37–43 in C. kazirangaensis). The new species may be distinguished from C. septentrionalis by a slightly lower precloacal pore count in males (9–12 versus 13–14), more subdigital lamellae beneath toe IV of the pes (19–21 versus 15–20) and fewer scales across the belly (30–34 versus 35–38). Furthermore, Cyrtodactylus urbanus sp. nov. differs from C. ayeyarwadyensis in having a prominent mid-dorsal stripe (absent in C. ayeyarwadyensis) and fewer transverse blotches on the dorsum (6–8 versus 9–11) Cyrtodactylus urbanus sp. nov. is very similar to C. khasiensis, from which it differs in mean counts across a number of characters as follows: Cyrtodactylus urbanus sp. nov. has fewer paravertebral tubercles (38–40 versus 42–53 in C. khasiensis); fewer mid-ventral scale rows (30–34 versus 34–42); and fewer apical subdigital lamellae (8–10 versus 13–15). The tail pattern in the original tail of the new species has approximately 14 dark bands, the first six similar to spots on the dorsum, whereas the original tail of C. khasiensis has approximately 11 dark bands, the first two similar to spots on the dorsum. |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | The specific epithet is an adjective meaning of or belonging to a city and reflects the urban habitat of the species, through which we also wish to highlight the importance of urban biodiversity. |
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