Taxonomic evaluation of two similar bent-toed geckos Squamata: Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) from East Java, Indonesia

The bent-toed geckos of the genus Cyrtodactylus are the most speciose land vertebrates of Southeast Asia (about 300 species so far) and new species continue to be recognized at a rapid rate. Within the last decade three new species were described from Java, Indonesia, C. semiadii, C. petani, and C. klakahensis. The latter two are very similar, except for differences in the precloacal depression in adult males. These two species have relatively close type localities, separated from each other by only about 50 km, and with similar habitat type and elevation. Our study aimed to evaluate the taxonomic status of C. klakahensis and C. petani using both morphological and genetic evidence. These two species are genetically similar, with a genetic divergence of only 1.5 to 1.6%. This divergence is well below the level of typically characterizes sister species of Cyrtodactylus (approximately 4% in the mitochondrial ND2 gene), and is more in line with population variation due to geographic distance. Further examination of specimens, from both type localities, showed no diagnostic morphological characters between the two species. Thus, we conclude that C. klakahensis and C. petani are conspecific, and following article 23 of the ICZN, C. klakahensis is herein considered a junior synonym of C. petani.