A new species of diurnal gecko of the genus Cnemaspis is described from granite boulder habitats in gallery forests in the Monts Alantika and Hosséré Vokré, north of the Adamaoua Plateau in north Cameroon. The new species is most similar to the widespread species Cnemaspis spinicollis but differs from this and all other congeners in details of both scalation (single enlarged scale beneath the penultimate interphalangeal joint of digit IV of pes, absence of an enlarged, flattened preaxial metatarsal scale, absence of tubercles on the crown and beneath the ear) and coloration (pale, with little contrast between background color and series of distinct whitish dorsal markings, throat markings weakly developed). The discovery of several new reptile species from the Adamaoua Plateau and its outliers highlights the potential importance of the northern Cameroonian highlands as a center of endemism.
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1 December 2006
New Species of Cnemaspis (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Northern Cameroon, a Neglected Biodiversity Hotspot
Aaron M. Bauer,
Laurent Chirio,
Ivan Ineich,
Matthew LeBreton
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