A new karst-dwelling gecko of the Gekko petricolus group (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) from Phitsanulok Province, central Thailand

ABSTRACT

We describe a new species of the genus Gekko from Phitsanulok Province, central Thailand. Gekko flavimaritus sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of morphological characters: medium size for Gekko (snout–vent length 76.0–84.5 mm in six adult males, 67.5–78.3 mm in 11 adult females); nares in contact with rostral; two enlarged postmentals; 12–16 dorsal tubercle rows; 27–35 ventral scale rows; 10–15 subdigital lamellae on first toe, 15–18 on fourth toe; finger and toe webbing weakly developed; tubercle absent on dorsal surface of forelimbs and hindlimbs; adult male with 7–8 precloacal pores, in continuous row; precloacal pores absent in females; single postcloacal tubercle on each side; tubercles present on dorsal surface of tail base; subcaudals enlarged; sexual dimorphism present (colouration on dorsum in life — yellow in adult males and brownish grey in adult females); dorsum with whitish vertebral blotches between nape and base of tail. Genetically, the new species is nested within the G. petricolus group and is closely related to G. boehmei and G. petricolus. The new species has uncorrected pairwise divergences of ≥ 18.57% of the ND2 gene from other species of G. petricolus group. Additionally, we present the first genetic data for G. lauhachindai, and verify its morphological assignment to the G. petricolus group.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:06420ACC-2A05-4CE5-AF94-86B5D550E907

KEYWORDS:

• Gekko flavimaritus
• Gekko lauhachindai
• taxonomy
• molecular phylogeny
• karst formation

Acknowledgements

We thank Piyawan Puenprapai and Dr Yik-Hei Sung for their help with fieldwork. This research was supported by the Thailand Research Fund (DBG6080010; MRG5380088). We thank the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Kasetsart University, for approving this research protocols (ACKU61-SCI-008). This work was facilitated through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, and the Science Unit of Lingnan University. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Thailand Research Fund [DBG6080010; MRG5380088].