Two new cryptic species of Hemidactylus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) allied to H. treutleri from Telangana, India

Abstract

We describe two new species of the genus Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820, namely Hemidactylus cairnicola sp. nov. and H. koyaorum sp. nov., from Nalgonda and Warangal districts of Telangana State, India, respectively, based on an integrative assessment of external morphology and mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) gene sequences. Both taxa are assigned to the Hemidactylus brookii group and belong to the murrayi clade, within which they show closest affinity to H. treutleri Mahony, 2009. Mitochondrial sequence divergence reveals substantial genetic differentiation from H. treutleri, with the species of Nalgonda exhibiting an uncorrected pairwise distance of 9.5–14.5%, and the species of Warangal differing by 7.0–13.5%. The two newly described species are also genetically distinct from each other, showing an uncorrected p-distance of 9.5–10.0%. These levels of divergence, in conjunction with consistent morphological differences, support the recognition of both taxa as distinct species.