A new species of Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker, 1860 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India

By

Bhupathi, Bharath
Ray, Sumidh
Narayana, B. Laxmi
Karuthapandi, M.
Jaiswal, Deepa
Kar, Niladri B.
Mohapatra, Pratyush P

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-10-27

Original Publication

Herpetozoa

Volume

38

Pages

333--343

Subjects

Cryptic Diversity , Hemiphyllodactylus venkatadri sp. nov. , molecular phylogeny , slender geckos , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.38.e167113

 

Abstract

<br> A new species of the genus<br> Hemiphyllodactylus<br> (slender geckos) is described from the Tirumala Hill ranges in the Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve of the southern Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, southern India. This novel species exhibits 9.7–12.9% divergence in uncorrected pairwise distances of NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) sequence data from its closely related congeners in peninsular India, namely<br> H. jnana<br> (9.5–12.6%),<br> H. nilgiriensis<br> (10.9–12.9%), and<br> H. peninsularis<br> (10.5–11.2%), and had previously been suggested as an undescribed species by earlier researchers based on molecular phylogenetic analyses. The new species, represented by five individuals, reached a maximum observed snout–vent length (SVL) of 33.7 mm and differs from its peninsular Indian congeners by the following combination of characters: 12–16 chin scales; 16–17 dorsal scales; 9–11 ventral scales at midbody; males with 6–8 precloacal pores and 5–7 femoral pores on each thigh, separated by 7–10 poreless scales; and lamellar formula of manus 2-2-2-2 and pes 2-2-2-2. This is the second species of the genus<br> Hemiphyllodactylus<br> to be reported from Andhra Pradesh, after<br> H. arakuensis<br> .<br>