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| Dravidogecko beddomei Adhikari, Srikanthan & Ganesh, 2023 |
ABSTRACT
We describe a new species of Dravidogecko from the poorly-inventoried Periyar Plateau of Southern Western Ghats, Peninsular India. The new species Dravidogecko beddomei sp. nov. is characterized by: precloacal-femoral pores 46‒52; scales across belly 31‒33; supralabials 9–11; infralabials 8–9; lamellae on digit IV of pes 10–11. Additionally, the new species is divergent (>13%) from its related congeners. Like its congeners, the new species is currently known only from its type locality and its vicinity – the Devar Malai, Kakki Reservoir – and Sivagiri Hills in the Periyar Plateau of Southern Western Ghats. This discovery further increases the list of new reptiles described from this under-studied massif in the Southern Western Ghats.
Keywords: allopatry, endemism, gecko, Periyar Plateau, wet zone
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| Live uncollected adult females of Dravidogecko beddomei sp. nov. sighted in Sivagiri Hills. |
Dravidogecko beddomei sp. nov.
A species of Dravidogecko endemic to the Periyar Plateau, characterized by the following combination of characters: snout-vent length up to 50.8 mm; two pairs of well-developed postmentals, inner pair longer than mental and outer postmentals, anteriorly in strong contact with mental; bordered by 1 st infralabial scale, mental, outer postmentals and two or three gular scales; ventral scale rows, 31‒33; precloacal-femoral pores 46‒52 (n = 3); subdigital lamellae beneath of digit I: six, and digit IV: eight or nine (manus); subdigital lamellae beneath of digit I: five or six and digit IV: 10 or 11 (pes); supralabials 9–11 and infralabials eight or nine on each side.
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Etymology: The specific epithet is a patronym coined in genitive singular case, honouring Col. Richard Henry Beddome (1830–1911), the pioneering herpetologist who first surveyed this part of the Western Ghats, the Devar Malai Hills (see Ganesh 2010).
Suggested common name: Beddome’s Dravidogecko .
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| Landscape (left) and habitat (right) of Dravidogecko beddomei sp. nov. at the Sivagiri Hill. |
Omkar Dilip Adhikari, Achyuthan N. Srikanthan and S.R. Ganesh. 2023. A New Species of Dravidogecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the under-surveyed Periyar Plateau of the Southern Western Ghats in Peninsular India. European Journal of Taxonomy. 870(1); 146–166. DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.870.2125
