Cnemaspis geethaiyerae Agarwal, Thackeray & Khandekar 2024, sp. n.

Cnemaspis geethaiyerae Agarwal, Thackeray & Khandekar sp. n. https://zoobank.org/ 0DBBA297-D0A2-4963-8BCD- 27101169 A886 (Figures 9–13; Tables 6–8) Holotype NRC-AA-8338 (AK-R 1092), adult male, near Aralvaimozhi (8.24420°N, 77.50831°E; ca. 200 m asl), Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu State, India; collected by Akshay Khandekar, Ishan Agarwal, Swapnil Pawar, and team on 5 April 2022. Paratypes NRC-AA-8339 (AK-R 1094), NRC-AA-8340 (AK-R 1095), adult males, same data as holotype; NRC-AA-8341 (AK-R 1098), adult male, BNHS 2883 (AK-R 1091), ZSI-R-28778 (AK-R 1097), adult females, near Aralvaimozhi (8.25118°N, 77.51523°E; ca. 170 m asl), Kanyakumari District, same data as holotype. Etymology The specific epithet is a latinised eponym honouring Dr Geetha Iyer, entomologist and former biology teacher at Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh, India, for her contributions as a teacher – instrumental in helping many children develop and sustain an interest in nature (including IA in particular), and for her help with our survey work in Kanyakumari District. Suggested common name Geetha Iyer’s dwarf gecko. Diagnosis A small-sized Cnemaspis, SVL up to 32.0 mm (n = 6). Dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous; weakly keeled granular scales intermixed with regularly arranged rows of enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles; last one or two rows of enlarged tubercles on flank weakly keeled, short and spine-like; 10 (rarely 9, n = 1/6) rows of dorsal tubercles at midbody, 14–17 tubercles in paravertebral rows; ventral scales subequal from chest to vent, smooth, oval or elongate, and subimbricate on pectoral region, becoming slightly larger posteriorly 30–34 scales across belly at midbody, 132–148 longitudinal scales from mental to cloaca; subdigital scansors smooth, unpaired, unnotched; 11–13 lamellae under digit I of manus and 11 or 12 under digit I of pes, 18 or 19 (rarely 17, n = 1/6) lamellae under digit IV of manus and 20–22 (rarely 19, n = 1/6) lamellae under digit IV of pes; males with three or four femoral pores on each thigh, separated medially by 22–28 poreless scales (n = 4/6); tail with enlarged, strongly keeled, and weakly pointed tubercles forming whorls; median row of subcaudals keeled only on tip, slightly enlarged with condition of two or three slightly enlarged scales alternating with an enlarged scale. Dorsum with light blotches including four large in vertebral row and scattered dark markings; a single indistinct black dorsal ocellus on neck, venter off-white with black speckles most prominent under throat; original tail in males with 9–11 faint bands, regenerated tail brown. Comparison with peninsular Indian congeners Cnemaspis geethaiyerae sp. n. can be easily distinguished from all 10 other major clades of South Asian Cnemaspis in India as well as C. boiei, C. jerdonii, and C. umashaankeri by a combination of the following differing or non-overlapping characters: males without precloacal pores, three or four femoral pores on each thigh, separated medially by 22–28 poreless scales (vs males without femoral or precloacal pores in C. boiei; males with only precloacal pores in C. beddomei clade; males with both precloacal and femoral pores in C. umashaankeri, C. bangara clade, C. goaensis clade, C. gracilis clade, C. monticola clade, and C. mysoriensis + adii clade; males with only femoral pores but> 8 in C. jerdonii, C. littoralis clade; males with 5–9 femoral pores on each thigh separated by 12–18 (rarely 19) poreless scales in C. wynadensis clade expect for C. wynadensis which has four or five femoral pores separated by 13–16 poreless scales, and C. kolhapurensis which has a continuous series of precloacal-femoral pores); short spine-like tubercles present on flanks (vs short or distinctly long spine-like tubercles absent on flanks in C. boiei, C. bangara clade, C. beddomei clade, C. indica clade, and C. wynadensis clade); small-sized, SVL of adults <40 mm (vs medium and large-sized, SVL of adults> 40 mm in C. bangara clade; C. beddomei clade except for C. aaronbaueri, C. galaxia, C. nigriventris, C. regalis; and C. wynadensis clade expect for C. wynadensis); median row of subcaudals keeled on tip of original tail, slightly enlarged with condition of two or three slightly enlarged scales alternating with an enlarged scale (vs subcaudal types A, B, C, or D in C. girii clade as defined by Khandekar et al. 2024a); not strongly sexually dichromatic (vs distinctly sexually dichromatic in C. beddomei clade, C. goaensis clade, C. gracilis clade, C. littoralis clade, and C. mysoriensis + adii clade).1 / / 1 / 1 Cnemaspis geethaiyerae sp. n. is similar genetically to members of the goaensis clade (five species) and morphologically to members of the gracilis clade (14 species) but can be easily distinguished from all by a combination of the following differing or non-overlapping characters: only femoral pores present, precloacal pores absent (vs both femoral and precloacal pores present in C. amboliensis, C. goaensis, C. ranganaensis, C. sakleshpurensis, and C. vijayae of the goaensis clade; and C. agarwali, C. agayagangai, C. fantastica, C. ganeshaiahi, C. gracilis, C. jackieii, C. mundanthuraiensis, C. pachaimalaiensis, C. reticulata, C. rudhira, C. salimalii, C. shevaroyensis, C. thackerayi, and C. triedra of the gracilis clade); median row of subcaudals slightly enlarged with condition of two or three slightly enlarged scales alternating with an enlarged scale (vs median row slightly enlarged in C. amboliensis, C. goaensis, C. ranganaensis, C. sakleshpurensis, and C. vijayae of the goaensis clade; and median row distinctly enlarged in C. agarwali, C. agayagangai, C. fantastica, C. ganeshaiahi, C. gracilis, C. jackieii, C. mundanthuraiensis, C. pachaimalaiensis, C. reticulata, C. rudhira, C. salimalii, C. shevaroyensis, C. thackerayi, and C. triedra of the gracilis clade). Cnemaspis geethaiyerae sp. n. is morphologically and geographically closest to its sister species Cnemaspis kanyakumariensis sp. n. but can be easily distinguished by having 10 (rarely 9, n = 1/6) rows of dorsal tubercles at midbody (vs 12 rows of dorsal tubercles at midbody); subcaudal scales keeled only on tip of original tail (vs subcaudal scales keeled on posterior one-third portion of original tail); presence of short spine-like tubercles on lower flank (vs distinctly long spine-like tubercles on lower flank; and mean of 18.4 (17–19) TLAMF4 (vs 16.1 (15–19))). Additionally, C. geethaiyerae sp. n. is 10.2 and 2.9% divergent from C. kanyakumariensis sp. n. in uncorrected pairwise ND2 and 16S sequence divergence, respectively (Table 2). Description of the holotype Adult male in good state of preservation except tail tip bent towards right, and 1.6 mm long incision on sternum region for tissue collection (Figure 9 (A–E)). SVL 29.2 mm, head short (HL/SVL 0.27), wide (HW/HL 0.62), not strongly depressed (HD/HL 0.33), distinct from neck. Loreal region marginally inflated, canthus rostralis not distinct. Snout half of head length (ES/HL 0.46), slightly more than two times eye diameter (ES/ED 2.17); scales on snout and canthus rostralis oval to elongate, subequal, smooth, becoming weakly keeled, and weakly conical front on the eye, much larger than those on forehead and interorbital region; scales on forehead similar to those on snout and canthus rostralis except smaller and weakly conical; scales on interorbital region even smaller, granular and smooth to weakly keeled; scales on occipital and temporal region heterogeneous, slightly enlarged, weakly keeled, rounded, and conical tubercles intermixed with smaller, weakly keeled and weakly conical granular scales (Figure 10 (A)). Eye small (ED/HL 0.21) with round pupil; supraciliaries short, larger anteriorly; six interorbital scale rows across narrowest point of frontal bone; 26 scale rows between left and right supraciliaries at mid-orbit (Figure 10 (A, C)). Ear-opening deep, oval, small (EL/HL 0.06); eye to ear distance greater than diameter of eye (EE/ED 1.41) (Figure 10 (C)). Rostral slightly more than two times wider (1.33 mm) than high (0.60 mm), incompletely divided dorsally by a strongly developed rostral groove for more than half of its height; a single enlarged supranasal on each side, slightly larger than postnasals, separated from each other by a slightly smaller and elongate internasal scale; two postnasals, upper postnasal marginally larger than lower; rostral in contact with supralabial I, nostril, internasal, supranasal, and lower postnasal on either side; nostrils oval, surrounded by two postnasals, supranasal, and rostral on either side; two rows of scales separate orbit from supralabials (Figure 10 (C)). Mental enlarged, subtriangular, slightly wider (1.38 mm) than high (1.19 mm); two pairs of postmentals, inner pair roughly rectangular, much shorter (0.48 mm) than mental, separated from each other below mental by a single enlarged median chin shield; inner pair bordered by mental, infralabial I, outer postmental, enlarged median chin shield and a single enlarged chin shield on either side; outer postmentals roughly hexagonal, even smaller (0.38 mm) than inner pair, bordered by inner postmentals, infralabial I and II, and three enlarged chin shields on either side; four enlarged gular scales between left and right outer postmentals; all chin scales bordering postmentals smooth, flattened, roughly hexagonal or circular, juxtaposed, subequal and much smaller than outermost postmentals; scales on rest of throat even smaller, roughly hexagonal or circular, juxtaposed, subequal (Figure 10 (B)). Infralabials bordered below by a row or two of slightly enlarged, much elongated scales, decreasing in size posteriorly. Ten supralabials up to angle of jaw and seven on left and eight on right side at midorbital position; supralabial I largest, rest of the series gradually decreasing in size posteriorly; eight infralabials up to angle of jaw on either side and six on left and seven on right side at