BHUBANESWAR: In a fresh addition to India’s reptile heterogeneity, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) scientists have found a new species of gecko within the genus Hemidactylus in Odisha’s Eastern Ghats.
The new species of the large-bodied, rock-dwelling gecko identified as ‘Hemidactylus kalinga’ or ‘Kalinga rock gecko’ derives its name from Kalinga Ghati - the Eastern Ghats hill range in the Kandhamal district of the state, where the species is primarily found. Besides, the present known distribution range of the species is within the historical ‘Kalinga kingdom’ comprising present-day south Odisha.
Scientists describe the new species as the second endemic Hemidactylus from Odisha after Hemidactylus paucifasciatus, and the fourth endemic reptile from the state. It has also been categorised as a sister species of Hemidactylus sushilduttai and Hemidactylus kangerensis in the Hemidactylus prashadi clade - the most diverse group of geckos represented by 23 different species across India.
ZSI scientist Pratyush Mohapatra who first collected the specimen of the species from Kalinga Ghati in May 2016 said Hemidactylus kalinga is endemic to the eastern highlands bio-geographic province of the Deccan Peninsula biogeographic zone and has been recorded from the forest tracts in the northern Eastern Ghats range of Odisha. Scientists said the new species from the Eastern Ghats clade of large-bodied, tuberculated Hemidactylus can be readily diagnosed morphologically from its sister species - Hemidactylus sushilduttai and Hemidactylus kangerensis.
The species has an olive brown body colour with four distinct bands, bordered with dark brown wavy lines. Further the reptile’s back scales are a mix of small, round, granular scales and larger, raised, cone-shaped scales (tubercles). The larger tubercles have a ridge down the middle and are arranged in 15 to 19 distinct lines running from the back of its head to its tail.
Mohapatra said the species was found to be common in the rocky outcrops in the hills of Kandhamal district, in Barbara reserve forest of Khurda, in Mandaragiri hills of Angul as well as in Bhanjanagar tracts of Ganjam. It has been found to be feeding on various arthropods and their larvae, with one individual seen feeding on the mole cricket.
The research paper, ‘A new species of Hemidactylus Goldfuss, 1820 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the Northern Eastern Ghats, Odisha, India’, published in Herpetoza journal, by Mohapatra and other authors - Sumidh Ray, Ashis Das, Bharath Bhupathi, Vivek Sarkar, Rakesh Mohalik, Manoj V Nair and Sushil K Dutta, highlighted that there are also multiple instances in which similar-looking, large-bodied Hemidactylus genus have been encountered in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kalahandi and Phulbani in south Odisha, Cuttack and Nayagarh in central Odisha and Sambalpur district in western Odisha.
However, they have not assigned them to the new species for now in the absence of taxonomic identity of those populations.