Abstract
The New Zealand endemic gecko genus, Mokopirirakau, is notable for its ecology, with some species inhabiting extreme alpine environments, as well as for the large number of geographically circumscribed, species-level lineages awaiting formal description. In, 2018, a population superficially similar in colour and morphology to the black-eyed gecko (M. kahutarae) was discovered in alpine greywacke rock outcrops in the Oteake Conservation Park, North Otago, ~400 km south of the nearest M. kahutarae populations in the upper South Island. Genetic and morphological data indicate that this population is distinct, sister to a clade comprising M. granulatus and M. kahutarae. It can be distinguished from all but one Mokopirirakau species by colour pattern, and from M. kahutarae by smaller adult body size, eye and supraciliary characters, mouth and throat colour, ventral scale row count, tail length, toe shape, and lamellar count. Using an integrated taxonomic approach, we here formally describe this form as a new species, M. galaxias sp. nov., as well as discuss its ecology, likely distribution (particularly with respect to M. kahutarae), and potential conservation issues and requirements. Mokopirirakau galaxias sp. nov. should be considered “Threatened—Nationally Endangered” (qualifiers Data Poor) in the New Zealand Threat Classification System due to the low abundance and restricted known distribution, with potential threats from invasive predatory mammals and climate change. It should be considered Data Deficient in the IUCN Red List system.
References
Bell, T.P. & Patterson, G.B. (2008) A rare alpine skink Oligosoma pikitanga n. sp. (Reptilia: Scincidae) from Llawrenny Peaks, Fiordland, New Zealand. Zootaxa, 1882 (1), 57–68.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1882.1.3
Chapple DG, Birkett A, Miller KA, Daugherty CH, Gleeson DM (2012) Phylogeography of the endangered Otago Skink, Oligosoma otagense: Population structure, hybridisation and genetic diversity in captive populations. PLoS ONE, 7 (4), e34599. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034599
Clark, K., Karsch-Mizrachi, I., Lipman, D.J., Ostell, J. & Sayers, E.W. (2016) GenBank. Nucleic Acids Research, 44 (D1), D67–D72.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkv1276
Clerke, P. (1994) Field work on the black-eyed gecko (Hoplodactylus kahutarae) in the Inland Kaikoura Ranges, Marlborough, 15-17 February 1994. Unpublished report, Nelson-Marlborough Conservancy, New Zealand Department of Conservation, Blenheim, 17 pp.
Cree, A. (1994) Low annual reproductive output in female reptiles from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 21 (4), 351–372.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1994.9518005
Cree, A. & Hare, K.M. (2016) Reproduction and life history of New Zealand lizards. In: Chapple, D.G. (Ed.), New Zealand Lizards. Springer, Berlin, pp. 169–206.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41674-8_7
Gray, J.E. (1845) Catalogue of the Specimens of Lizards in the Collection of the British Museum. Order of the Trustees, London, xxvii + 289 pp.
Hitchmough, R.A. (1997) A Systematic Revision of the New Zealand Gekkonidae. Victoria University, Wellington. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, 370 pp.
Hitchmough, R., Barr, B., Monks, J., Lettink, M., Reardon, J., Tocher, M., van Winkel, D. & Rolfe, J. (2016) Conservation status of New Zealand reptiles, 2015. New Zealand Threat Classification Series [Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand], (17), 14 pp.
Jewell, T.R. & Leschen, R.A.B. (2004) A new species of Hoplodactylus (Reptilia: Pygopodidae) from the Takitimu Mountains, South Island, New Zealand. Zootaxa, 792 (1), 1–11.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.792.1.1
Jewell, T. & Morris, R. (2011) A Photographic Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Zealand. Second edition. New Holland, Auckland, 144 pp.
Knox, C.D., Cree, A. & Seddon, P.J. (2013) Accurate identification of individual geckos (Naultinus gemmeus) through dorsal pattern differentiation. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 37, 60–66.
Knox, C.D., Jewell, T.R. & Monks, J.M. (2019) Ecology of orange-spotted geckos (Mokopirirakau “Roys Peak”) in Central Otago and Queenstown-Lakes districts. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 43 (2), 1–9.
https://doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.43.14
Leathwick, J., Morgan, F., Wilson, G., Rutledge, D., McLeod, M. & Johnston, K. (2002) Land Environments of New Zealand: A Technical Guide. Ministry for the Environment, Hamilton, 244 pp.
Lee, W. & Lee, D. (2015) New Zealand – a land apart. In: Stow, A., Maclean, N. & Holwell, G.I. (Eds.), Austral Ark. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 24–44.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139519960.004
Liggins, L, Chapple, D.G., Daugherty, C.H. & Ritchie, P.A. (2008) A SINE of restricted gene flow across the Alpine Fault: phylogeography of the New Zealand common skink (Oligosoma nigriplantare polychroma). Molecular Ecology, 17 (16), 3668–3683.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03864.x
Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema Naturæ per Regna Tria Naturæ, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis. Tomus I. Editio Decima, Reformata. Impensis Direct. Laurentii Salvii, Holmiæ [Stockholm], [4] + 823 + [1] pp.
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.542
Macey, J.R, Schulte, J.A.II., Ananjeva, N.B., Larson, A., Rastegar-Pouyani, N., Shammakov, S.M. & Papenfuss, T.J. (1998) Phylogenetic relationships among agamid lizards of the Laudakia caucasia species group: testing hypotheses of biogeographic fragmentation and an area cladogram for the Iranian Plateau. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 10, 118–131.
https://doi.org/10.1006/mpev.1997.0478
Marshall, B.M., Strine, C. & Hughes, A.C. (2020) Thousands of reptile species threatened by under-regulated global trade. Nature Communications, 11 (1), 1–12.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18523-4
McCann, [Y.M.]C. (1955) The lizards of New Zealand. Gekkonidae and Scincidae. Dominion Museum Bulletin, 17, 1–127.
McEwen, W.M. (1987) Ecological Regions and Districts of New Zealand (4 volumes). New Zealand Biological Resources Centre, Department of Conservation.
Miller, M.A., Pfeiffer, W. & Schwartz, T. (2010) Creating the CIPRES Science Gateway for inference of large phylogenetic trees in Proceedings of the Gateway Computing Environments Workshop (GCE), 14 Nov. 2010, New Orleans, LA, pp. 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1109/GCE.2010.5676129
O’Donnell, C.F.G., Weston, K.A. & Monks, J.M. (2017) Impacts of introduced mammalian predators on New Zealand’s alpine fauna. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 41 (1), 1–22.
https://doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.41.18
Patterson, G.B. & Bell, T.P. (2009) The Barrier skink Oligosoma judgei n. sp. (Reptilia: Scincidae) from the Darran and Takitimu Mountains, South Island, New Zealand. Zootaxa, 2271 (1), 43–56.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2271.1.4
Shaw, T. (1998) Field report: Conservation Volunteer Holiday NM3, Kahurangi National Park rare plant and animal survey, January 1998. Unpublished report, Nelson/Marlborough Conservancy, Department of Conservation, Nelson, 7 pp.
Stamatakis, A. (2014) RAxML ver. 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies. Bioinformatics, 30, 1312–1313.
https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu033
Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30 (12), 2725–2729.
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197
Townsend, A.J., de Lange, P.J., Duffy, C.A.J, Miskelly, C.M., Molloy, J. & Norton, D.A. (2008) New Zealand Threat Classification System Manual. Department of Conservation, Wellington, 35 pp.
Trewick, S.A. (2001) Scree weta phylogeography: Surviving glaciation and implications for Pleistocene biogeography in New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 28 (3), 291-298.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2001.9518271
Trewick, S.A., Wallis, G.P., & Morgan-Richards, M. (2000) Phylogeographical pattern correlates with Pliocene mountain building in the alpine scree weta (Orthoptera, Anostostomatidae). Molecular Ecology, 9, 657–666.
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.00905.x
Waite, J. & Collier, K. (2012) Range extension of the black-eyed gecko (Mokopirirakau kahutarae) in Kahurangi National Park. BioGecko, 1, 41.
Weston, K. (2014) Conservation Genetics of Alpine Rock Wren (Xenicus gilviventris) (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10523/4922 (accessed 12 March 2021)
Whitaker, A.H. (1984) Hoplodactylus kahutarae n. sp. (Reptilia; Gekkonidae) from the Seaward Kaikoura Range, Marlborough, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 11, 259–270.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1984.10428239
Whitaker, T [A.H.]., Shaw, T. & Hitchmough, R. (1999) Black-eyed geckos (Hoplodactylus kahutarae) on Mt Arthur, Kahurangi National Park. Conservation Advisory Science Notes No. 230. [Department of Conservation, Wellington.]
Whitaker, T., Chapple, D.G., Hitchmough, R.A., Lettink, M. & Patterson, G.B. (2018) A new species of scincid lizard in the genus Oligosoma (Reptilia: Scincidae) from the mid-Canterbury high country, New Zealand. Zootaxa, 4377 (2) 269−279.