A new species of Lepidodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea
A new species of Lepidodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea
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巴布亚新几内亚翁博伊岛的鳞指龙一新种（有鳞目：壁虎科）
DOI：
10.11646/zootaxa.5296.4.2
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发表时间：
2023
期刊：
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
WEIJOLA, VALTER
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
KRAUS, FRED;VAHTERA, VARPU;WEIJOLA, VALTER
我们描述了一种来自Umboi岛的鳞翅目新种，就在新不列颠岛的西部。它是鳞翅目的一员，可以从数字刻度、数字带、扩大的股/腔前鳞片和颜色图案等方面与所有其他美拉尼西亚鳞翅目区分开来。它在遗传上与其最近的同系物不同，遗传和形态学数据表明，新物种在已命名的物种中与所罗门群岛的鳞翅目鱼最为相似，但在它现在占据的岛屿存在之前，它与该物种和其他近亲大约在8亿年前或更长时间内分化。人们只从一棵树上收集到三个新物种，而在附近似乎很好的栖息地寻找更多动物的努力也没有成功。这重复了许多鳞翅目物种明显罕见的模式。Umboi岛上有足够的栖息地供树栖壁虎生存，这表明壁虎实际上并没有濒临灭绝，只是在生态上很隐秘。然而，由于缺乏必要的信息，我们将该物种的保护状况评估为数据不足。
We describe a new species of Lepidodactylus from Umboi Island, just to the west of New Britain. It is a member of the Lepidodactylus guppyi Group and can be distinguished from all other Melanesian Lepidodactylus by aspects of digital scalation, digital webbing, enlarged femoral/precloacal scales, and color pattern. It is genetically distinct from its closest congeners, and genetic and morphological data indicate that the new species is most similar among named species to Lepidodactylus guppyi from the Solomon Islands, but it diverged from this species and other close relatives approximately 8 MYA or longer at a time prior to the existence of the island that it now occupies. The new species is known from only three individuals collected on a single tree, and efforts to find more animals in what seemed good habitat nearby were unsuccessful. This duplicates the pattern of apparent rarity seen for many Lepidodactylus species. Sufficient habitat exists on Umboi Island for arboreal geckos, suggesting that the species is not actually endangered but is ecologically cryptic. However, lack of needed information leads us to assess this species’ conservation status as Data Deficient.