Hemidactylus nzingae CERÍACO, AGARWAL, MARQUES & BAUER, 2020
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Hemidactylus nzingae
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| Higher Taxa | Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Queen Nzinga’s Tropical Gecko Portuguese: Osga da Rainha Nzinga |
| Synonym | Hemidactylus nzingae CERÍACO, AGARWAL, MARQUES & BAUER 2020: 48 Hemidactylus muriceus — PETERS 1881: 147 Hemidactylus muriceus — BOCAGE 1895: 13 Hemidactylus longicephalus — SCHMIDT 1933: 4 [part] Hemidactylus longicephalus — MANAÇAS 1963: 227 Hemidactylus brookii angulatus — LAURENT 1964: 29 Hemidactylus cf. muriceus — CERÍACO et al. 2016: 59 Hemidactylus cf. muriceus — CERÍACO et al. 2018: 422 Hemidactylus cf. muriceus — MARQUES et al. 2018: 186 Hemidactylus murecius [sic] — BRANCH et al. 2019: 315 Hemidactylus hannahsabinae CERÍACO, AGARWAL, MARQUES & BAUER 2020: 95 Hemidactylus hannasabinae — CERÍACO et al. 2020: 92 (in error) Hemidactylus hannahsabinnae — LOBÓN-ROVIRA et al. 2021 (in error) Hemidactylus nzingae CERÍACO et al. 2020: 48 [part] |
| Distribution | Angola (Malanje, Uíge, Bíe, Huambo, Lunda Sul, Lunda Norte) Type locality: Cangandala National Park (-9.872667°, 16.700889°, 1092 m), Malanje Province, Republic of Angola hannahsabinae: Angola (Bié, Malanje Provinces); Type locality: Pavalange, Luando Natural Reserve (-10.969765°, 17.612431°, 1127 m elevation), Bié Province |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. CAS 258418 (field number Jvv 9224; Fig. 24; Table 5), adult male, collected by Luis Ceríaco, Mariana Marques, Suzana Bandeira, Edward Stanley and Jens Vindum on 17 September 2015. Paratypes. CAS 258422, adult male, Cangandala National Park (-9.81011°, 16.65564°, 1086 m), Malanje Province, collected by Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Mariana P. Marques, Suzana Bandeira, Edward L. Stanley and Jens vindum on 26 September 2015; MHNCUP/Rep-464 (field number Jvv 9473), adult male, Cangandala National Park (-9.872667°, 16.700889°, 1092 m), Malanje Province, collected by Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Mariana P. Marques, Suzana Bandeira, Edward L. Stanley and Jens vindum on 10 October 2015; AMNH 47786, adult female, Huambo (-12.776111°, 15.739167°, 1700 m), Huambo Province, collected Herbert Lang and W. Rudyerd Boulton in 1925; AMNH 47782, adult male, Dande (-11.166667°, 17.166667°, 1126 m), Malanje Province, collected by Herbert Lang and W. Rudyerd Boulton in 1925; AMNH 47774, adult male, Chitau (-11.424927°, 17.154407°, 1506 m), Bié Province, collected by Herbert Lang and W. Rudyerd Boulton in August 1925; ANSP 32189, male adult, Pavalange (-10.969765°, 17.612431°, 1127 m), Malanje Province, collected by Harold T. Green in October 1930; CM 5724, male adult, Gaúca (-11.18333°, 17.45°, 1243 m) Bié Province, collected by W. Rudyerd Boulton and Laura Boulton on 10 January 1931; FMNH 18476, male adult, with the same collecting details as the previous paratype; IICT 4-1957 and 5-1957, two female adults, both from Fazenda OtíliaEncoge (-7.55°, 15.03333°, 765 m), Uíge Province, collected by Fernando Frade on 26 August 1957; MD 4008, adult female, Alto-Cuílo (-10.049015°, 19.515477°, 1259 m), Luanda Sul Province, collected by António Barros Machado in June 1954. Holotype. ANSP 32189 (Fig. 1; Table 2), adult male, collected by Harold T. Green in October 1930. Additional specimens: AMNH [hannahsabinae] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A medium sized Hemidactylus, maximum snout-vent length 51.5 mm (Fig. 23). Dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous, with 17–21 irregularly arranged longitudinal rows of subtrihedral, striated, strongly keeled tubercles at midbody. Two well developed pairs of postmentals, the inner pair longer than the outer pair, but about the same size as the mental, and in broad contact behind the mental. ventrolateral folds distinct, about 23–27 scale rows across venter. Five or six divided scansors beneath first digit of both manus and pes, 6–8 beneath fourth digit of manus, nine (rarely eight) beneath the fourth digit of pes. Males with a continuous series of 6–8 precloacal pores. Original tail roughly cyclotetragonal, strongly spinose; scales on the tail slightly larger than dorsals of trunk, striated, imbricate, with a longitudinal series of two enlarged, strongly keeled, striated, pointed tubercles on either side of the median dorsal furrow. Subcaudal scales small and imbricate, about one fifth of tail width. Body dorsum with a series of dark-brown “W-shaped” transverse markings from occiput to sacrum, bordered by a cream-colored stripe extending from behind the eyes to the insertion of the legs; tail with distinct alternating light and dark bands. |
| Comment | Synonymy: Lobón-Rovira et al. 2021 synonymized H. hannahsabin(n)ae with H. nzingae and exclude it for comparison in the diagnosis of their other species descriptions. |
| Etymology | The species is named after Ngola Nzinga Mbande (1583–1663), also known by the Portuguese Catholic name of Ana de Sousa, queen of the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba and one of the most important Angolan chieftains, whose kingdoms spanned approximately the same region as the known distribution of the new species. The specific epithet hannahsabinae honors Hannah Sabin of the Sabin family, philanthropic supporters of herpetofaunal conservation. |
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