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Type: Article
Published: 2022-04-27
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Two new species of Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the rocky outcrops of the Deccan plateau, peninsular India

Natural History Collection department, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Opp. Lion Gate, S. B. S. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001, Maharashtra, India.
Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, Karnataka, India.
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Studies (CBCS), #F6, Central Facilities for Research and Development (CFRD), Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana State-500 007, India.
Natural History Collection department, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Opp. Lion Gate, S. B. S. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001, Maharashtra, India.
Darter Photography Pvt. Ltd., 22, 6th main, 13th cross, BTM 2nd stage, Bangalore 560 076.
Chennai Snake Park, Rajbhavan post, Chennai 600 022, Tamil Nadu, India.
Reptilia Devarayana Durga Hills gecko Hemidactylus femoral pores ND2 gene Sandur Hills

Abstract

The gekkonid diversity of the under-explored dry zones in Peninsular India is not yet completely inventoried, as evidenced by frequent new species descriptions. Here, we describe two new species of Hemidactylus from the dry rocky zones of Deccan Plateau viz. Hemidactylus mahonyi sp. nov. from Sandur Hills and Hemidactylus srikanthani sp. nov. from Devarayana Durga Hills, Karnataka State of Peninsular India. The new species belong to the morphologically cryptic H. murrayi Clade but differ from each other and the known congeners by a set of morphological characters and possess non-overlapping distribution ranges. Furthermore, the new species are also divergent (> 6.4% uncorrected p-distance) from their nearest related congeners, and from one another with respect to the ND2 mitochondrial gene. Recently, other new species of reptiles have been described from the two aforesaid type localities, indicating that further bio-inventories in the dry zones of peninsular India will yield more such novelties.

 

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