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| Cnemaspis anslemi
Karunarathna & Ukuwela, 2019
Amphibian & Reptile Conservation. 13(2)
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Abstract
A new day gecko species of genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from a midland forested area of Udamaliboda (north-western foothills of Samanala Nature Reserve) in Sri Lanka. This species is medium in size (30–35 mm SVL) and can be differentiated from all other Sri Lankan congeners by a suite of distinct morphometric, meristic, and color characters (dorsum with smooth and homogeneous granular scales; chin, gular, pectoral, and abdominal scales smooth; precloacal pores absent in males, 14–15 femoral pores separated by 9–11 unpored interfemoral scales in males; subcaudals smooth, subhexagonal, enlarged, subequal, forming a regular median row). It was recorded from tall trees with smooth bark in home gardens, and also on clay walls in very old tall houses in wet, cool, and shady forests, distributed across mid elevations (~450–650 m) with limited anthropogenic disturbance. They can climb to heights of 7 m on vertical surfaces of trees. The most noteworthy behavior of this species is that when “scared,” it runs only upward to the canopy of the tree or along the wall to hide within crevices. The major threats for this species in Udamaliboda and other locations in lower Samanala Nature Reserve are habitat loss due to expansion of commercial-scale agriculture and monoculture plantations, and illicit forest encroachments. Therefore, these foothill forests warrant special conservation, habitat protection, further in-depth research, and specifc hands-on management practices.
Keywords. Arboreal, conservation, ecology, rainforest, redlist, taxonomy, Sripadha, threats
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| Fig. 4. Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov. male holotype (NMSL.2019.14.01) in life in-situ. (A) Dorsal view of the full body displaying the typical color pattern and a straight black middorsal dash over midpoint of neck, (B) Ventral aspect showing gular and femoral colorations, (C) lateral view showing labial coloration and zigzag pattern, (D) dorsal view of the full body of female paratype (NMSL.2019.14.02) in life in-situ from Udamaliboda, Samanala Nature Reserve, Sri Lanka.
Photos: Kanishka Ukuwela and Suranjan Karunarathna.
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Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov.
Anslems’ Day Gecko (English)
Anslemge divaseri hoona (Sinhala) Anslemvin pahalpalli (Tamil)
Diagnosis. Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov. can be readily distinguished from its Sri Lankan congeners by a combination of the following morphological and meristic characteristics, and also color pattern: maximum SVL 34.4 mm; dorsum with homogeneous, smooth granular scales; 2/2 supranasals, one internasal, and 1/1 postnasal present; three enlarged postmentals; postmentals bounded by fve chin scales; chin and gular scales smooth, granular, juxtaposed; pectoral and abdominal scales smooth and subimbricate; 3–5 well developed tubercles on posterior fank; 118–122 paravertebral granules linearly arranged; 19–21 belly scales across venter; precloacal pores absent in males, 14–15 femoral pores on each side in males separated by 9–11 unpored interfemoral scales in males, and 2–3 unpored posterior femoral scales in males; 111–117 ventral scales; 87–91 midbody scales; subcaudals smooth, subhexagonal, enlarged, subequal, forming a regular median row; 8–9 supralabials; 8–9 infralabials; 16–17 total lamellae on digit IV of manus, and 20–21 total lamellae on digit IV of pes (Table 1). Dorsal body reticulated brown, black, and white; two large oval patches present on the neck; chin and gular with bright yellow, and femur dirty yellow.
Etymology. The specifc epithet is an eponym Latinized (anslemi) in the masculine genitive singular, honoring the veteran Sri Lankan herpetologist Kongahage Anslem Lawrence de Silva (the father of modern herpetology in Sri Lanka) for his valuable contributions to Sri Lankan herpetology and for inspiring the next generation of herpetologists, including the authors.
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| Fig. 5. General habitat of Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov. at Udamaliboda, Samanala Nature Reserve, Kegalle District, Sri Lanka. (A) Complete view of the forest hill, (B) shady forest with thick leaf litter, (C) hundred years old house made using clay and bricks, also with wattle and daub, (D) communal egg laying site on a clay wall.
Photos: Madhava Botejue and Suranjan Karunarathna.
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Natural history. The lower Samanala Nature Reserve area (along with Udamaliboda) comprises home gardens, and tropical evergreen rainforests (Gunatileke and Gunatileke 1990) mixed with tea and rubber plantations. The area comprises the Ratnapura and Kegalle districts and ..., at an elevation of 350–850 m. The mean annual rainfall varies between 3,500 and 4,500 mm, received mostly via the southwest monsoon (May– September). The mean annual temperature of the area is 26.4–27.9 ºC. Cnemaspis anslemi sp. nov. is a quite rare species as six (± 0.1) geckos per survey-hour were found after covering a total area of 20 ha. This species was restricted to tall straight trees with smooth bark and thick canopy cover, and houses with tall clay walls with crevices. These geckos could climb up to 7 m on vertical surfaces of trees (Fig. 5). They were active during the day time (08.00–17.00 h) and, when disturbed, sought refuge in tree tops with crevices. The new species was sympatric (at local habitat scale) with several other geckos (Cnemaspis samanalensis, Cnemaspis sp., Cyrtodactylus triedrus, Cyrtodactylus sp., Gehyra mutilata, Hemidactylus depressus, H. pieresii, H. frenatus, H. parvimaculatus, and Hemiphyllodactylus typus). The eggs were pure white in color and almost spherical in shape (~5 mm), with a slightly fattened side that attached to the clay-wall substrate. This species has also been recorded from the Lihinihela, Borangamuwa, and Warnagala areas in lower Samanala Nature Reserve.
Suranjan Karunarathna and Kanishka D.B. Ukuwela. 2019. A New Species of Dwarf Day Gecko (Reptilia: Gekkonidae: Cnemaspis) from Lower-elevations of Samanala Nature Reserve in Central massif, Sri Lanka. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation. 13(2) [General Section]: 14–27 (e187).
