A new species of Gecko from Meghalaya has been recorded from Umroi Military Station in the Ri-Bhoi district of the state by a group of researchers. The new find is scientifically named Cyrtodactylus exercitus. Exercitus in Latin means army. The name has been coined to honour the Indian army for their services and dedication.Locally, the Gecko shall be called the Indian Army’s bent-toed gecko. The genus Cyrtodactylus is represented by around 320 species worldwide and is the third most found species vertebrate genus in the world. The members of the genus range from South Asia to Melanesia with high diversity in south Asia. Northeast India is now home to 16 species of bent-toed gecko.As a part of ongoing research to uncover herpetofaunal diversity of Northeast India, a team of researchers — Jayaditya Purkayastha and Sanath Chandra Bohra of Help Earth, Yashpal Singh Rathee of Umroi Military Station, Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga, Vabeiryureilai Mathipi, Lal Biakzuala & Lal Muansanga of Dept of Zoology, Mizoram University and Beirathie Litho of RMSA School Lobo has discovered two new of species of bent-toed gecko, one each from Meghalaya and Mizoram. The findings of the study is published in the European Journal of Taxonomy. The new species from Mizoram has a scientific name Cyrtodactylus siahaensis and the English name Siaha bent-toed gecko. The species was named after Siaha.“One of the best ways to serve my motherland is by protecting it and its citizens. The biggest fear that haunts us is our death and an army embraces death for our wellbeing. As long as I live, I will be in debt to my countries’ armed forces and this is my minuscule contribution to the forces that makes us sleep peacefully with a belief that our nation is in safe hands,” expressed Dr Jayaditya Purkayastha, General Secretary Help Earth.“We describe two new species of Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827, each from the Indian states of Meghalaya and Mizoram based on morphology and ND2 gene sequences. The new species are a part of the Cyrtodactylus khasiensis group. Both species represent the highland clade within the south of Brahmaputra clade of Indo-Burmese Cyrtodactylus. Based on ND2 gene sequence, the species from Meghalaya have an uncorrected p-distance of 4.21%–4.25% from a lowland species C. Guwahatiensis Agarwal, Mahony, Giri, Chaitanya & Bauer, 2018 and is a sister taxon to C. septentrionalis Agarwal, Mahony, Giri, Chaitanya & Bauer, 2018. The species from Mizoram differ from its sister species C. bengkhuaiai Purkayastha, Lalremsanga, Bohra, Biakzuala, Decemson, Muansanga, Vabeiryureilai, Chauhan & Rathee, 2021 by a p-distance of 8.33%,” mentions European Journal of Taxonomy.In 2019, researchers discovered six new species of bent-toed geckos, a type of small lizard, from the northeast and one of them is from Guwahati.While researchers found the Guwahati bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus guwahatiensis, named after the city) near a small hillock in the urban sprawl of Guwahati city, the Kaziranga bent-toed gecko, the Jaintia bent-toed gecko and the Nagaland bent-toed gecko have been discovered from Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya and Khonoma village in Nagaland, respectively. The Abhayapuri bent-toed gecko is currently found only in the vicinity of Abhayapuri town in Assam’s Bongaigaon district, and the Jampui bent-toed gecko, only in Tripura’s Jampui Hills. All the new lizards belong to the genus Cyrtodactylus and are called bent-toed or bow-fingered geckos, named after their bent toes. Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.