33. Cnemaspis brahmaputra

Sayyed, Das, Amarasinghe, Bhattacharjee, Purkayastha, 2025

Publication :

Sayyed A, M Das, AAT Amarasinghe, R Bhattacharjee, J Purkayastha (2025). A new day gecko of the Cnemaspis podihuna (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) clade from Northeast India. Taprobanica 14 (2): 107–120.

Remarks :

We discovered Cnemaspis brahmaputra from Assam, a valley of an antecedent river, the Brahmaputra, in northeastern India that belongs to the C. podihuna species group. The new species is the second Cnemaspis reported from the mainland Indian subcontinent, representing the entire podihuna clade and genetically and morphologically allied to C. assamensis in northeast India, and the members of the C. podihuna group in Sri Lanka.

Etymology:
The specific epithet is an invariable noun in apposition and refers to the antecedent river, ‘Brahmaputra’, which flows near the type locality. Brahmaputra (in the Sanskrit language) is a singular possessive noun with Brahma (=a name of the Hindu god, referred to as "the creator") and putra (=son, referred to here as offspring), thus the offspring of the creator. Brahmaputra River (3,969 km) flows through China, northeast India, and Bangladesh, and is one of the top ten largest rivers by discharge (Sarma 2004).

English name: Brahmaputra day gecko