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| Cyrtodactylus nebulicola Ray, Bhupathi, Chatterjee, Das & Mohapatra, 2026 Latpanchar Bent-toed Gecko || DOI: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1278.186655 |
Abstract
A new species of the genus Cyrtodactylus Gray is described from the eastern Himalayan region of West Bengal state, India. The new species is assigned to the C. peguensis species group and is readily distinguished from its regional congeners by a unique combination of morphological characters. These include dorsal scalation comprising small granules intermixed with enlarged, feebly keeled, weakly pointed tubercles arranged in 15–22 fairly regular longitudinal rows at midbody; 11–14 subdigital lamellae beneath the first digit and 17–23 beneath the fourth digit; nine precloacal pores and 6–9 femoral pores in males; 10–12 supralabials; and nine infralabials. Molecular analyses based on mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) sequence data further support the distinctiveness of the new species, which exhibits 11.8–19.8% uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence from its closest congeners. Specifically, it differs from C. gubernatoris by 11.8–12.0% and from C. bhupathyi by 18.5–19.8%, while showing divergences exceeding 20.5% from other congeners examined. In addition to the description of the new species, detailed redescriptions of the holotypes of two regional congeners, C. himalayicus and C. gubernatoris, are provided based on direct examination. The discovery of this new taxon highlights the underestimated diversity of Cyrtodactylus in the eastern Himalayas and underscores the importance of integrated morphological and molecular approaches in resolving species boundaries within this speciose gecko genus.
Key words: Cyrtodactylus peguensis, Darjeeling, eastern Himalayas, morphology, taxonomy, West Bengal
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| Live specimens of Cyrtodactylus nebulicola sp. nov. (A) uncollected individual, (B) one of the paratypes (ZSI-R-29060). |
Cyrtodactylus nebulicola sp. nov.
Suggested common English name. Latpanchar Bent-toed Gecko.
Etymology. The species epithet nebulicola is derived from the Latin words: nebula meaning “mist” or “cloud,” and -cola meaning “dweller” or “inhabitant”, collectively meaning “dweller of the mist”. The name refers to the characteristic mist-laden, cloud-forest habitat of Latpanchar in the Darjeeling Himalaya, where the species was discovered. The epithet is treated as a noun in apposition and does not change with gender.
Sumidh Ray, Bharath Bhupathi, Suvrajyoti Chatterjee, Ritesh Das and Pratyush P. Mohapatra. 2026. Description of A New Species of Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) from India with redescriptions of the holotypes of C. gubernatoris (Annandale, 1913) and C. himalayicus (Annandale, 1906). ZooKeys. 1278: 317-338. DOI: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1278.186655 [30 Apr 2026]
