Surely you have seen nature depicted in art, but how often have you seen a work of art hidden in nature?
When they saw the back of a lizard in the Southern Western Ghats, a group of scientists from the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation of India were reminded of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. When they realized it was a new species, they had no choice but to name it in honor of the famous painter.
«Cnemaspis vangoghi It owes its name to the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), as the striking coloring of the new species is reminiscent of one of his most symbolic paintings, The Starry Night,” explains Ishan Agarwal, who was involved in the study. Describe the new male lizard This species has a yellow head and forebody and light blue spots on the back and lives among rocks and occasionally between buildings and trees.
Together with fellow researchers Akshay Khandekar and Tejas Thackeray, they found the new species during an expedition in April 2022 to the Southern Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, India. They have now published their results in the scientific journal ZooKeys.
“Tamil Nadu is a state with exceptional biodiversity and we hope to name more than 50 new lizard species by the end of our expeditions,” says Ishan Agarwal.
“During this summer trip, I also suffered more than 500 tick bites, with the highest density in the low-lying dry forests of Srivilliputhur, where the new species are found,” he adds.
Cnemaspis vangoghi It is a small salamander that can reach a length of 3.4 cm. It was described as new to science along with another species in its genus, Cnemaspis sathuragiriensis, named after its type locality, the Sathuragiri Hills.
“The two new species are distributed in low-elevation deciduous forests (250-400 m above sea level) of Srivilliputhur and complement the five endemic vertebrates known from Srivilliputhur Tiger Reserve Srivilliputhur Megamalai, in Tamil Nadu (India),” explains Ishan Agarwal. They are active during the day, especially in the cool morning and evening hours, and are found primarily on rocks. So far they have only been found in very limited locations, “an interesting case of microendemism in low-altitude species,” he points out.
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Two new types of Cnemaspis galaxy complex (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the eastern slopes of the southern Western Ghats
Photo credit: Akshay Khandekar