Skip to main content

Muria gecko (Cnemaspis muria)

Cicak Muria or muria gecko or Mount Muria gecko (Cnemaspis muria) are Cnemaspis species live on Mount Muria, Central Java Province, Indonesia, and are found accidentally along rivers and coffee plantations. The inventors predict C. muria plays a role in controlling insect populations including pests in coffee plants.

Gecko as a reptile that usually creeps on a wall or tree, has a gray or blackish brown color and is about 10 centimeters in size. Tropical climate is a very comfortable place for various types of lizard to grow and develop as recently discovered.

Dlium Muria gecko (Cnemaspis muria)

Muria gecko is a special species as the first record for the distribution of stone gecko on the island of Java today and Mount Muria which has a history of being separated from the island. Other Cnemaspis species in Indonesia are known only on Mount Rajabasa in Lampung Province, West Kalimantan Province and a small island in the Karimata Strait.

In July 2018, Andri IS Martamenggala from Gaia Consulting discovered and realized that this gecko was one of the new species. So far Cnemaspis has never been reported in Java and Martamenggala managed to convince these findings to colleagues at LIPI.

LIPI formed a team including Awal Riyanto, Misbahul Munir, Yuli Sulistya Fitriana, Amir Hamidy and Martamanggala to conduct research on these findings. The new species of stone lizard they named Cnemaspis muria on May 17, 2019 in ZOOTAXA, 4608 (1), 155-173, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4608.1.9.

Dlium.com Muria gecko (Cnemaspis muria)

Mount Muria gecko has morphological features including round pupils, a total length of 5.8 cm, has a pair of cone-shaped tubercular structures on the back of the head, warty grooves in the nuchal loop, dorsal tubercular series not arranged linearly, without pores precloakal and femoral pores.

The first limb of the front limb has an enlarged submetakarpal structure, on the first finger the hind limb has enlarged submetatarsal scales, 31-35 lamella under the fingers of the four hind limbs, right and left of the cloaca have each of the two tubercular structures.

A row of subkaudal scales enlarges in the middle of the ventral tail and tubercular forms a ring formation along the tail. Males have a yellow belly and the tip of the tail is white, while the female has a white belly and half the tail of the back is decorated in black and white alternating like a ring.



C. muria lives in rock habitats along rivers and coffee plantations, maybe also in forests at an altitude of 600 to 650 m above sea level. Morphological and phylogeny analysis is closely related to C. bidongensis on Bidong Island, Malaysia, and belongs to the Kendallii distributed in peninsular Malaysia, Kalimantan, Natuna and Java as new distribution locations. The genetic distance of the two species is 4.4% to 4.5%.

Journal : Riyanto et al. Hiding in plain sight on Gunung Muria: A new species and first record of rock gecko (Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887; Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Java, Indonesia, Zootaxa, 17 May 2019, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4608.1.9

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Gekkonidae
Subfamily: Gekkoninae
Genus: Cnemaspis
Species: V. muria

Popular Posts

Indian shot (Canna indica)

Puspa midra or Indian shot ( Canna indica ) is is plant species in Cannaceae, annual, shrub 0.5-2.5 meters high, depending on variety, erect stems, unbranched and leaf midrib arranged overlapping to form pseudostems and hermaphrodite flowers. C. indica forms a branched rhizome, 60 cm long which is divided into rounded segments and is covered in two stripes by pale green or purple scaly leaves. The rhizome has tubers that contain very large starch grains. The surface has transverse furrows, the underside appears white roots and numerous shoots. The leaves sit alternate and spiral or arranged in two rows, very large and divided into a leaf midrib, short stalk and blade. The strands are 30-60 cm long, 10-20 cm wide and have linear veins, green or purple-green, the base blunt or narrowly pointed and the apex immediately tapering or sharp. Hermaphrodite flowers, pedicels 0.2-1 cm long and red or yellow-orange, except in some cultivars 4.5-7.5 cm long. The sepals are triangular in shape a...

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum)

Guinea grass or buffalo grass or green panic ( Panicum maximum ) is a plant species in Poaceae, annual grasses, growing upright to form clumps, strong, cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions for very high value as fodder. P. maximum reproduces in very large pols, fibrous roots penetrate into the soil, upright stems, green, 1-1.5 m tall and have smooth cavities for diameters up to 2.5 mm. Propagation is done vegetatively and generatively. Ribbon-shaped leaves with a pointed tip, very many, built in lines, green, 40-105 cm long, 10-30 mm wide, erect, branched, a white linear bone, often covered with a layer of white wax, rough surface by hair short, dense and spread. The flower grows at the end of a long and upright stalk, open with the main axis length to more than 25 cm and the length of the bunches down to 20 cm. Grains have a size of 3x4 mm and oval. Seeds have a length of 2.25-2.50 mm and each 1 kg contains 1.2 - 1.5 million seeds. Guinea grass has two varieties. P...

Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia)

Sonokeling or Java palisandre or Indian rosewood ( Dalbergia latifolia ) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae, a large tree producing hardwood, medium weight and high quality, rounded leaves, thin and broad pods, highly adaptive, grows in dry and rocky landscapes with lots of sunlight. D. latifolia has medium to large size, cylindrical stems, up to 40 m high with a ring of up to 2 m, the bark is brownish gray and slightly cracked longitudinally. The crown is dense, dome-shaped and sheds leaves. The leaves are compound and pinnate oddly with 5-7 strands that have different sizes and appear alternately on the shaft. The leaves are round or elongated in width or heart, the upper surface is green and the surface is pale green. The flowers are small, 0.5-1 cm long and clustered in panicles. The pods are green to brown when ripe and are elongated lanceolate, pointed at the base and tip. The pods have 1-4 seeds which are soft and brownish. Indian rosewood grows at elevations below 600 m,...