A new species of the Cyrtodactylus chauquangensis species group (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Lao Cai Province, Vietnam

Abstract

We describe a new species of the genus Cyrtodactylus based on five adult specimens from Bac Ha District, Lao Cai Province, northern Vietnam. Cyrtodactylus luci sp. nov. is distinguished from the remaining Indochinese bent-toed geckos by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: medium size (SVL up to 89.5 mm); dorsal tubercles in 17–19 irregular transverse rows; ventral scales in 32–34 longitudinal rows at midbody; precloacal pores present in both sexes, 9 or 10 in males, 8 or 9 in females; 12–15 enlarged femoral scales on each thigh; femoral pores 9–12 in males, 5–10 in females; postcloacal tubercles 2–4; lamellae under toe IV 21–23; dorsal pattern consisting of 5 or 6 irregular dark bands, a thin neckband without V-shape or triangle shape in the middle, top of head with dark brown blotches; subcaudal scales transversely enlarged. Molecular phylogenetic analyses recovered the new species as the sister taxon to C. gulinqingensis from Yunnan Province, China, with strong support from all analyses and the two taxa are separated by approximately 8.87–9.22% genetic divergence based on a fragment of the mitochondrial ND2 gene. This is the first representative of Cyrtodactylus known from Lao Cai Province.