Redescription of Hemidactylus giganteus Stoliczka, 1871 with the description of three new allied species (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820) from peninsular India

Abstract

We revise the systematics of Hemidactylus giganteusan Indian endemic leaf-toed gecko based on recent collections from the type locality and other localities in peninsular India. We provide a comprehensive redescription of H. giganteus sensu stricto and describe three new allied species from the Karnataka and Telangana states in India. We analysed the phylogenetic relationships between the three new species, H. raya sp. nov., H. saxicolus sp. nov., and H. aemulus sp. nov., and found them to be nested within the H. giganteus sensu lato branch. The pairwise genetic divergence between these new cryptic taxa from H. giganteus sensu stricto ranged from 5.88% to 10.95% for the Cyt b gene. The new species also differ from H. giganteus sensu stricto based on number of femoral pores on each thigh and poreless scales separating them (1823 femoral pores and seven or eight poreless scales versus 17 femoral pores and seven poreless scales in H. raya sp. nov., 26 or 27 femoral pores and nine poreless scales in H. saxicolus sp. nov., and 2225 femoral pores and nine to ten poreless scales in H. aemulus sp. nov.), corroborated by linear discriminant analysis based on 29 morphometric and meristic characters. Our species delimitation analysis shows the presence of three additional putative new species awaiting formal description within the H. giganteus sensu lato branch.