434 Accepted by A. Bauer: 16 Dec. 2013; published: 24 Jan. 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3755 (5): 434–446 www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3755.5.3 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B06C2DCA-78B6-46F9-8D4F-1716DD20C4A5 A new species of karst forest-adapted Bent-toed Gecko (genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827) belonging to the C. sworderi complex from a threatened karst forest in Perak, Peninsular Malaysia L. LEE GRISMER 1 , DAICUS M. BELABUT 2,3 , EVAN S. H. QUAH 4 , CHAN KIN ONN 5 , PERRY L. WOOD, JR. 6 & ROSLI HASIM 2 1 Department of Biology, La Sierra University, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, California 92515 USA. E-mail: lgrismer@lasierra.edu 2 Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. E-mail: daicus@um.edu.my & roslihashim@um.edu.my 3 Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia 4 School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: evanquah@yahoo.com. E-mail: shahrulanuar@gmail.com 5 Biodiversity Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA. E-mail: chan@ku.edu 6 Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, 150 East Bulldog Boulevard, Provo, Utah 84602 USA. E-mail: pwood@byu.edu Abstract A new species of Bent-toed Gecko Cyrtodactylus guakanthanensis sp. nov. of the C. sworderi complex is described from a limestone forest in Perak, Peninsular Malaysia whose karst formations at the type locality are within an active quarry. Cyrtodactylus guakanthanensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from all other Sundaland species by having the following suite of character states: adult SVL 77.7–82.2 mm; moderately sized, conical, weakly keeled, body tubercles; tubercles present on occiput, nape, and limbs, and extend posteriorly beyond base of tail; 37–44 ventral scales; no transversely en- larged, median, subcaudal scales; proximal subdigital lamellae transversely expanded; 19–21 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; abrupt transition between posterior and ventral femoral scales; enlarged femoral scales; no femoral or precloacal pores; precloacal groove absent; wide, dark postorbital stripes from each eye extending posteriorly to the anterior margin of the shoulder region thence forming a transverse band across the anterior margin of the shoulder region; and body bear- ing five (rarely four) wide, bold, dark bands. Destruction of the karst microhabitat and surrounding limestone forest will extirpate this new species from the type locality and perhaps drive it to complete extinction given that it appears to be restricted to the particular microhabitat structure of the type locality and is not widely distributed throughout the karst for- mations. As with plants and invertebrates, limestone forests are proving to be significant areas of high herpetological en- demism and should be afforded special conservation status rather than turned into cement. Key words: new species, Cyrtodactylus, karst, limestone, conservation, biodiversity, Gua Kanthan, Peninsular Malaysia Introduction Karst forests compose some of the most unique microhabitats found in tropical ecosystems. They are generally open canopy forests surrounding formations of ancient limestone and comprised of a number of unique, small, spindly trees and spiny plants adapted to nutrient poor conditions and periodic drought (Kiew 1998). Despite the astonishing degree of floral endemism in karst forests, vertebrate systematists have generally overlooked these areas and thus, only a few specialized vertebrates are known to exploit the unique microhabitats they compose (i.e. Jenkins et al. 2004; Alström et al. 2010; Woxvold et al. 2009). The growing exception to this lack of scientific inquiry is the recent increase in the discovery of highly specialized, endemic species of reptiles found in Peninsular Malaysia. We have been surveying karst forests and their associated limestone formations since 2008 and have discovered seven new karst-adapted species of Rock Geckos (genus Cnemaspis: Grismer et al. 2008b, c, 2009,