A new species ofPhyllodactylus(Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Karoo National Park, South Africa

Abstract

GOOD, D.A., A.M. BAUER, and W.R. BRANCH. 1996. A new species of Phyllodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Karoo National Park, South Africa. Afr. J. Herpetol. 45(2): 49–58. A new species of small, rupicolous Phyllodactylus is described from the upper plateau of the Karoo National Park, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Features of scalation, colour and body form, as well as three fixed allozyme differences distinguish the new species from all other southern African Phyllodactylus. The new species is morphologically most similar to P. hewitti from the southern Cape Fold Mountains, and is genetically most similar to this species and to P. hexaporus from the Cedarberg. The new form is allopatric with respect to all other members of the P. lineatus complex, although P. lineatus reaches its easternmost and inland limit on the lower plateau, only a few airline kilometers away, but nearly a vertical kilometer lower in elevation. Allozyme and genetic distance data are reported for all seven species in the P. lineatus group. Phyllodactylus gemmulus is the sister taxon of the remainder of the group, with P. lineatus as the sister taxon of the clade (Phyllodactylus n. sp. + P. essexi + P. hewitti + P. hexaporus + P. rupicolus). These last five species appear to have diverged from one another almost simultaneously, suggesting a climatic change that may have isolated ancestral populations throughout South Africa. This event probably took place approximately 2.3–4.1 MY.