Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis Schneider & Luu & Sitthivong & Teynié & Le & Nguyen & Ziegler 2020, sp. nov.

Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov.

(Fig. 4)

Holotype. One adult male, IEBR 4548 (Fig 4a), collected by Alexandre Teynié in 2012 from Luang Prabang Province, Ngoi District (at an elevation of 420 m a.s.l.).

Paratypes. Three adult females: ZFMK 102768, IEBR A.2013.110 (Fig. 4b), IEBR A.2013.111, collected by Truong Quang Nguyen and Alexandre Teynié in August 2013 from Luang Prabang Province, Ngoi District (at elevations of 402–427 m a.s.l.).

Diagnosis. The new species can be distinguished from all its congeners on the basis of the following combination of characters: maximum SVL 95.3 mm; supralabials 6–9; infralabials 8–11; ventral scales 38–43; dorsal tubercles in 15–21 rows at midbody; enlarged femoral scales present; precloacal pores 7 in the male, 7 pitted scales in females; femoral pores 14 in the male, absent in females; five bright yellow transverse dorsal bands; subcaudals enlarged.

Description of holotype. Adult male, SVL 88.8 mm, tail broken; head depressed (HL/HW 1.4), distinct from neck; snout scales small, homogeneous, granular, larger than those in frontal and parietal regions; rostral wider than high, square-shaped, medially with a straight, vertical suture, in contact with nasorostral, nare, and first supralabial on each side; internasal absent; nares round or oval, surrounded by supranasal, rostral, first supralabial, and two or three enlarged postnasals; supralabials 8 or 9; ear in oval shape; mental triangular, slightly narrower than rostral, in contact with two postmentals and the first infralabial on each side, postmentals surrounded by first infralabial on each side and 10 granular scales posteriorly, two outer ones enlarged; infralabials 8 or 9; gular scales granular; scales between fifth supralabials across the dorsal head surface in 50 rows; scales between anterior corners of eye orbits 32; interorbital region with small, round or oval, convex scales; dorsal postorbital surface of head with enlarged tubercles; pupil vertical (Fig. 5 a–d). Dorsal scales granular to flattened; dorsal tubercles conical, present on head, back and tail base, each surrounded by 8–10 granular scales, in 21 irregular longitudinal rows at midbody; scales around midbody 102; ventral scales smooth, medial scales 2 or 3 times larger than dorsal scales, round, in 38 longitudinal rows at midbody; scales between mental and cloacal slit 179; ventrolateral folds slightly developed; precloacal groove absent; femoral scales enlarged, pitted femoral scales 14; precloacal scales enlarged, precloacal pores 7; postcloacal tubercles 3 on each side (Fig. 5e); tubercles absent on forelimbs, present on hindlimbs; fingers and toes free of webbing; lamellae under fourth finger 16 or 17, under fourth toe 20 (Tables 4 and 5).

Coloration in life: Ground coloration of dorsal head and back brown; head with dark brown spots; nuchal loop U-shaped, sometimes broken, from posterior corner of eye over the tympanum to the neck, dark brown, edged in bright yellow; five brown transverse bands between limb insertions, edged in bright yellow, darker in center; dorsal surface of fore and hind limbs with alternating brown and dark brown pattern; tail brown dorsally with nine to ten light brown bands; ventral surface beige to cream.

Variation. Sexual dimorphism is shown in adult females lacking femoral pores (vs. 14 pitted scales in the male); in addition, females had fewer dorsal tubercle rows (15–19) and more scales from mental to cloacal slit (192–199); a single internasal present in the female ZFMK 102768; scales between fifth supralabials across the head 39–64. Female specimens show enlarged subcaudal scales, which is not determinable in male holotype due to missing tail.

Comparisons. We compared the new species with its congeners from Laos (Table 2) and with other Cyrtodactylus from the Indochina region including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia (Table 3). Morphologically, Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov. resembles the members of the C. wayakonei group due to the low amount of precloacal pores (Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov.: PP in the male and (or pitted scales) in females: 7). Therefore, below we compared the new species with members of the C. wayakonei species group.

The new species has enlarged subcaudal scales and thus differs from the following species which are lacking enlarged subcaudals: C. bobrovi; C. otai; C. vilaphongi; C. wayakonei. The new species has femoral pores in males and thus differs from the following species which are lacking femoral pores in males: C. chauquangensis; C. cucphuongensis; Cyrtodactylus houaphanensis sp. nov.; C. martini; C. puhuensis; C. spelaeus; C. taybacensis. The new species has a contiguous series of precloacal-femoral pores in males and thus differs from the following species, which are separated by poreless scales: C. huongsonensis; C. sonlaensis; C. muangfuangensis. The new species differs from C. soni by having more femoral pores in males (14 vs. 5–8), and the presence of 7 precloacal pitted scales in females (vs. 7–8 pores).

Morphologically, Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov. is most similar to C. dumnuii from Thailand but the new species can be distinguished from the latter by its larger size (maximum SVL 95.3 vs. 84.2), having more precloacal pores in males (7 vs. 5–6) and pitted precloacal scales in females (7 pitted scales vs. 0–7 pores) (Bauer et al. 2010). In addition, Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov. has less pronounced dorsal tubercles than C. dumnuii and a different colour pattern (uniform brown bands in C. dumnuii versus thinner brown transverse bands edged in whitish yellow in Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov.).

Natural history notes. The female paratype ZFMK 102768 was found on a limestone wall near a cave (at elevation of 402 m a.s.l.), about 1 m above the forest ground. IEBR A.2013.110 and IEBR A.2013.111 were found in a small hole of a limestone wall, about 0.2–0.5 m above the forest ground.

Distribution. Cyrtodactylus ngoiensis sp. nov. is currently known only from the type locality in Luang Prabang Province, Laos.

Etymology. We name this species after its type locality in Ngoi District, Luang Prabang Province, Laos and propose the common name Ngoi Bent-toed Gecko (English).