A new karst-dwelling gecko of the Gekko petricolus group (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) from Phitsanulok Province, central Thailand

We describe a new species of the genus Gekko from Phitsanulok Province, central Thailand. Gekko flavimaritus sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of morphological characters: medium size for Gekko (snout–vent length 76.0–84.5 mm in six adult males, 67.5–78.3 mm in 11 adult females); nares in contact with rostral; two enlarged postmentals; 12–16 dorsal tubercle rows; 27–35 ventral scale rows; 10–15 subdigital lamellae on first toe, 15–18 on fourth toe; finger and toe webbing weakly developed; tubercle absent on dorsal surface of forelimbs and hindlimbs; adult male with 7–8 precloacal pores, in continuous row; precloacal pores absent in females; single postcloacal tubercle on each side; tubercles present on dorsal surface of tail base; subcaudals enlarged; sexual dimorphism present (colouration on dorsum in life — yellow in adult males and brownish grey in adult females); dorsum with whitish vertebral blotches between nape and base of tail. Genetically, the new species is nested within the G. petricolus group and is closely related to G. boehmei and G. petricolus. The new species has uncorrected pairwise divergences of ≥ 18.57% of the ND2 gene from other species of G. petricolus group. Additionally, we present the first genetic data for G. lauhachindai, and verify its morphological assignment to the G. petricolus group.