Cyrtodactylus pulchellus Gray

Cyrtodactylus pulchellus Gray

Penang Island Bent-toed Gecko Fig. 4

Cyrtodactylus pulchella Gray, J.E. 1827:56. A synopsis of the genera of saurian reptiles, in which some new genera are indicated, and the others reviewed by actual examination. Philosophical Magazine 2: 54–58. Type locality.— “ India ” restricted without comment to “ Singapore ” (Gray 1845:173) and further restricted here to Penang Island, Peninsular Malaysia (see below).

Gymnodactylus pulchellus Duméril and Bibron 1836:423; Günther 1864:113; Cantor 1847:631; Stoliczka 1873:118; Boulenger 1885:47; Flower 1896:863 (in part), 1899:626 (in part); Boulenger 1912:37 (in part); Smith 1930:13 (of Boulenger 1912).

Diagnosis.– Adult males reaching 114.1 mm SVL, adult females reaching 113.3 mm SVL; 9–11 supralabials, 8–10 infralabials; tubercles of dorsum moderately large, strongly keeled and widely separated with no intervening smaller tubercles; no tubercles on ventral surface of forelimbs, gular region, or in ventrolateral body fold or these regions may be weekly tuberculated; 33–43 paravertebral tubercles; 22–26 longitudinal rows of dorsal tubercles; 29–34 rows of ventral scales; 21–26 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; 33–39 femoro-precloacal pores in males; dorsum not bearing scattered, white tubercles; four dark body bands with a body band/interspace ratio of 0.75–1.25; 8–10 dark caudal bands on original tail; white caudal bands in adults immaculate; and posterior portion of tail hatchlings and juveniles not white (Table 4). These characters are scored across all species of the Cyrtodactylus pulchellus complex in Table 6.

SVL=snout-vent length; w=weak; 0=absence; 1=presence; /=data unavailable.

Distribution.– Cyrtodactylus pulchellus is endemic to Penang Island (= Pulau Pinang), Penang, Peninsular Malaysia (Fig. 3).

Remarks. – In his description of Cyrtodactylus pulchellus, Gray (1827) listed the type locality as “ India ” which, without comment, he later amended to “ Singapore ” (Gray 1845). Cantor (1847:633) noted that “no authenticated record exists of this species ever having been observed in Bengal” (fide Duméril & Bibron 1836) and further indicates that the specimen described by Gray (1827) and others, he (Cantor) had apparently examined and were “from the hills of Prince of Wales Island (Pulo Pinang)” and at the time of his writing prior to 1843 were in his personal collection. Additionally, confirmed records of this species in Singapore have never existed despite the extensive collections made on that island since the turn of the 20th Century (see Grismer 2011:81–87 for a review). We examined close-up, high resolution, digital color photographs (LSUDPC 6051–55) of the holotype (BM XXII.91.a; an adult female) which had diagnostic characters in accord with those of C. pulchellus sensu lato (Table 4) in having large, widely separated dorsal tubercles with no intervening smaller tubercles, 36 paravertebral tubercles, and lacking lightened centers in the body bands separating it from C. astrum sp. nov.; moderately large strongly keeled dorsal tubercles separating it from C. lekaguli sp. nov., C. astrum sp. nov. C. langkawiensis sp. nov., C. bintangtinggi sp. nov., and C. trilatofasciatus sp. nov.; no tubercles on ventral surface of forelimbs, gular region, or in the ventrolateral body fold separating it from C. macrotuberculatus; and four body bands the same width as the interspaces separating it from C. trilatofasciatus sp. nov. Therefore, in conformity with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature’s (ICZN 1999), Recommendation 76A.2 which states that “a type locality that is found to be erroneous should be corrected”, we herein restrict the type locality of Cyrtodactylus pulchellus to Penang Island, Penang, Peninsular Malaysia.