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Type: Article
Published: 2014-12-24
Page range: 555–568
Abstract views: 33
PDF downloaded: 1

Hiding in plain sight: a new species of bent-toed gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus) from West Timor, collected by Malcolm Smith in 1924

Department of Biology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA; present address: Department of Herpetology, Bronx Zoo, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York 10460, USA
Department of Biology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA
Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom; and West Midland Safari Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 1LF, United Kingdom
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
Gekkonidae Cyrtodactylus new species Lesser Sunda Archipelago West Timor Indonesia description taxonomy osteology Malcolm Smith

Abstract

We describe a new species of bent-toed gecko from a single specimen initially collected in 1924 by Malcolm Smith on Timor Island in the Lesser Sunda Archipelago of Indonesia. Cyrtodactylus celatus sp. nov. is distinguished from all other congeners by the following combination of characters: small adult size; without spinose tubercles on the ventrolateral body fold and along the lateral margin of the tail; 16 longitudinal rows of tubercles at midbody; 42 ventral scales between the ventrolateral folds at midbody; no transversely enlarged, median subcaudal scales; 17 subdigital lamellae (seven basal + ten distal) under the fourth toe; no abrupt transition between postfemoral and ventral femoral scale series. The specimen is the earliest confirmed record of the genus Cyrtodactylus for Timor, and it is the first putatively endemic gecko species described from this island.