Abstract
A new species of ground dwelling gecko, Cnemaspis kottiyoorensis sp. nov. is described from the hills of Kannur and Wayanad district of Kerala, India. This medium sized, robust Cnemaspis differs from all other Indian congeners in possessing heterogeneous dorsal scales composed of granular scales with more or less regularly arranged longitudinal rows of keeled, conical tubercles running down the back; two supranasals and a long internasal separating the nasal scales; subtriangular mental with two widely separated enlarged postmentals and 1 – 3 small median scales; 19 or 20 subdigital lamellae on finger IV and 20 or 21 on toe IV; 4 or 5 femoral pores on each thigh; no preanal pores; sub-cylindrical tail without whorls of enlarged tubercles on the dorsal aspects; uniform, hexagonal median subcaudals; six supralabials and six or seven infralabials. Morphological characters and natural history traits suggest the affinity of the new species is with Cnemaspis wynadensis. Characters useful in distinguishing the new species from C. wynadensis are also provided.
Keywords: ground-dwelling; Cnemaspis kottiyoorensis sp. nov.; Cnemaspis wynadensis; Kerala; India
Vivek Philip Cyriac and P. K. Umesh. 2014. Description of a New Ground-Dwelling Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Squamata: Gekkonidae), from Kerala, Allied to C. wynadensis (Beddome, 1870). Russian Journal of Herpetology. 21(3):187-194.
