v1i2.14

Submitted date: 15 June 2009
Accepted date: 10 September 2009
Published date: 22 November 2009
Pp. 80–82.

ON THE HOLOTYPE OF Cnemaspis podihuna DERANIYAGALA, 1944

A.A. Thasun Amarasinghe* & Aaron M. Bauer
*Corresponding author. E-mail: thasun.taprobanica@gmail.com

Sri Lankan members of the gecko genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 have recently been reviewed and redescribed. The endemic species Cnemaspis podihuna was first described by P.E.P. Deraniyagala in 1944 from Lahugala-Maha Oya area in Eastern Province based on five specimens (holotype and four paratypes). Deraniyagala (1944) clearly stated “Type – An adult male (fig. I) with the distal half of the tail broken off. Length…..; tail (incomplete) 18 mm. The specimen is in the Colombo Museum.” He also mentioned “Paratypes – An adult female measuring 25 mm. from snout tip to cloaca (tail missing), a half grown specimen, and two young ones.” The original description includes a figure of C. podihuna; this is almost certainly intended to be of the type based on the fact that the figure shows precloacal and femoral pores, a feature restricted to mature male Cnemaspis, and on the basis that the holotype was the only adult male noted by Deraniyagala. Deraniyagala (1953) subsequently provided the same information again in his book-length treatment of the lizards of Sri Lanka.

Section Editor: John Rudge