Narayanan, Surya and Christopher, Peter and Raman, Kothandapani and Mukherjee, Nilanjan and Prabhu, Ponmudi and Lenin, Maniezhilan and Vimalraj, Sivangnanaboopathidoss and V, Deepak (2023) A new species of rock-dwelling Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the southern Eastern Ghats, India. Vertebrate Zoology, 73. pp. 499-512.

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Abstract

A new large-bodied (SVL 101–109 mm) gecko of the genus Hemidactylus is described from the Gingee Hills in the Eastern Ghats of India. The new species is closely related to H. graniticolus and the recently described H. easai, from which it can be distinguished by its lower femoral pores count. The new species described here was previously identified as H. cf. graniticolus based only on the molecular data, pending its formal description. Our findings were consistent with the results from the molecular DNA analyses, showing that this population is morphologically distinct from other closely related species. As a result, we formally describe this lineage as a new species, providing a comprehensive description of its morphological characteristics based on a type series of five specimens and compare it with its congenerics.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright of this article belongs to Surya Narayanan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Femoral pores, gecko, Gingee, ND2 phylogeny, species complex, taxonomy
Subjects: A ATREE Publications > G Journal Papers
Divisions: SM Sehgal Foundation Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation
Depositing User: Ms Suchithra R
Date Deposited: 25 Nov 2025 10:28
Last Modified: 25 Nov 2025 10:28
URI: http://archives.atree.org/id/eprint/970

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