Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis MURDOCH, GRISMER, WOOD, NEANG, POYARKOV, TRI, NAZAROV, AOWPHOL, PAUWELS, NGUYEN & GRISMER, 2019
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Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Cardamom Mountains Bent-toed Gecko |
| Synonym | Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis MURDOCH, GRISMER, WOOD, NEANG, POYARKOV, TRI, NAZAROV, AOWPHOL, PAUWELS, NGUYEN & GRISMER 2019: 32 Cyrtodactylus intermedius — DALTRY & TRAEHOLT 2003: 89–90 Cyrtodactylus intermedius — EMMETT & OLSSON 2005: 34–35 Cyrtodactylus intermedius — STUART & EMMETT 2006: 17 Cyrtodactylus intermedius — GRISMER et al. 2008: 165 |
| Distribution | Cambodia (Pursat; Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, forests around O’Som and Thmar Baing). Type locality: Camp 3, Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, Pursat Province, Cambodia (1211’52’’N, 10303’10’’E; 336 m in elevation). |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype: LSUHC 7947, adult male, collected on 10 August 2006 by L. Lee Grismer, Neang Thy, Thou Chav, Perry L. Wood Jr., Jamie R. Oaks, Jeremy Holden, Jesse L. Grismer, Thomas R. Szutz, Timothy M. Youmans. Paratypes. Adult female LSUHC 7936 and female juvenile LSUHC 7943 bear the same collection data. Adult female LSUHC 7918 was collected at camp 2 (1212’N, 10304’E, 331 m in elevation) by the same collectors. Adult female LSUHC 10096 was collected near O’Som village Pursat Province, Cambodia (1204’N 10309’E) on 23 August 2011 by the same collectors plus Evan S. H. Quah. Adult male FMNH 263344 was collected in the Thmar Baing district, Koh Kong Province, Cambodia (1140’12’’N 10342’46’’E) 820 m in elevation on 28 February, 2004 by Bryan L. Stuart. Adult male FMNH 263345 was collected in the Thmar Baing district, Koh Kong, Cambodia along the Russei Chrum river (1157’24’’N 10318’43’’E) 420 m in elevation 31 December, 2003 by Bryan L. Stuart. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. Adult males reaching 80.6 mm SVL, adult females reaching 84.1 mm SVL; 7–9 supralabials, 8–10 infralabials; 29–34 paravertebral tubercles; 17–21 longitudinal rows of dorsal tubercles; 36–43 rows of ventral scales; five or six expanded subdigital lamellae proximal to the digital inflection, 12 or 13 unmodified, distal, subdigital lamellae; 17–19 total subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; enlarged femoral and precloacal continuous; 23– 28 enlarged femoral scales; proximal femoral scales ranging from greater than one-half the size to the same size as distal femoral scales; nine or 10 enlarged precloacal scales with pores in each in males; two or three rows of enlarged post-precloacal scales; two or three postcloacal tubercles; no interdigital pocketing present; dark pigmented blotches absent from top of head; posterior border of nuchal loop rounded; and four or five dark body bands (summarized in Tables 7 + 11 in Murdoch et al. 2019). Comparisons. Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis sp. nov. is a member of the western group and the sister to C. intermedius complex incertae sedis 1 from Koh Rong Island, Cambodia from which it is separated by 3.5% sequence divergence (Table 4 in Murdoch et al. 2019). The PCA analysis shows Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis sp. nov. is separated in morphospace from all species with the exceptions of C. phuquocensis, C. auralensis sp. nov., and C. bokorensis sp. nov. with which there is overlap. (Fig 6). The DAPC analysis shows C. cardamomensis sp. nov. as distinct from all other species within the complex with the exceptions of C. intermedius, C. septimontium sp. nov., and C. auralensis sp. nov. with which there is some overlap (Fig. 7). Cyrtodactylus cardamomensis sp. nov. is well- differentiated from all species of the C. intermedius complex by having combinations of statistically different mean values of supralabial and infralabial scales, paravertebral tubercles, longitudinal rows of tubercles, ventral scales, unmodified, expanded, and total number of subdigital lamellae, enlarged femoral scales, precloacal scales, and postcloacal tubercles (Table 6). It differs from C. auralensis sp. nov. by lacking any dark pigmented blotches on the top of the head. It differs from C. bokorensis sp. nov. in having a nuchal loop with a rounded posterior border. It differs from C. laangensis sp. nov. in having contact between femoral and precloacal scales. It differs from all other species with the exception of C. thylacodactylus sp. nov. in having its proximal and distal femoral scales being of approximately the same size and shape as opposed to having proximal femoral scales less than one-half the size of the distal scales. It is further differentiated from C. thylacodactylus sp. nov. in lacking interdigital pocketing (Table 7). |
| Comment | Habitat: Specimens were collected at night and found on the ground among small rocks and on vegetation no higher than one meter above the ground. Stuart & Emmet (2006) note that specimens collected from Thmar Baing were found in hill evergreen forest as well as disturbed lowland dry evergreen forest. Genetic diversity: The populations from the Cardamom mountains and Koh Rong Island have a sequence divergence of 3.5% (Table 3 in Murdoch et al. 2019) despite a physical distance of 100km, 15km of which is open ocean. Conversely, C. cardamomensis sp. nov. and C. thylacodactylus sp. nov. have a 3.7% sequence divergence but are only separated by 20km with significant morphological differentiation. |
| Etymology | The specific epithet, cardamomensis, is an adjective in reference to the mountain range where the type locality, Phnom Samkos, is located. While the Cardamom mountains refer broadly to all highlands located in southwestern Cambodia Murdoch et al. have chosen this group to be named as such as it occurs broadly through a large and mostly contiguous segment of the mountain range rather than being restricted to specific isolated geological features such as Phnom Aural, Phnom Dalai or the Bokor Plateau. |
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