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| Goniurosaurus wangshu Zhu, Wu, li & He, in Zhu, Wu, Liu, Bai, Román-Palacios, Li & He, 2022. |
Abstract
A new species of Tiger Gecko in the genus Goniurosaurus is described from Guangdong, China. This new species, Goniurosaurus wangshu sp. nov. is the fifth species of Goniurosaurus found in karst topography of Guangdong. It is distinguished morphologically from congeners in this region by the combination of thirteen precloacal pores in male; dorsal ground color of head, body, and limbs in adults yellow; and iris orange. To validate our morphological inferences and support the description of Goniurosaurus wangshu sp. nov. as a new species, we sequenced 16S, CMOS, cytb, and RAG1 gene regions and performed molecular phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic analysis places the new species within the G. yingdeensis group and highlights the evolutionary distinction between this new species and other described congeners.
Key words: taxonomy, molecular phylogeny, karst
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| Goniurosaurus wangshu sp. nov. from Guangdong, China. A: Immature female (photographed in the field); B:Adult female (photographed in the field); C: Scalation and coloration characters of the head (same individual as in Fig 1B); D:Habitat. |
Goniurosaurus wangshu Zhu, Wu, li & He sp. nov.
Etymology. The specific epithet wangshu is for the Chinese phonetic alphabet 望舒, which was noted in ancient Chinese poem Li Sao over 2000 years ago. In ancient Chinese mythology, Wang Shu is the driver of the chariot of the moon. This name also corresponds to the time when the specimens were collected during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a traditional Chinese Festival that is associated with the full moon. Additionally, this name appeals to the yellow color of the species that resembles the moonlight. The epithet is a noun in apposition. For the commonname, we suggest “Wangshu Cave Gecko, 望舒睑虎”.
Xiao-yu Zhu, Shi-yang Wu, Yi-jiao Liu, Yun Bai, Cristian Román-Palacios, Zheng Li and Zhu-Qing He. 2022. Goniurosaurus wangshu sp. nov., A New Species of Tiger Gecko from Guangdong, China (Squamata: Eublepharidae). Zootaxa. 5188(6); 544-558. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5188.6.3
