A new species of feather-tailed leaf-toed gecko, Kolekanos Heinicke, Daza, Greenbaum, Jackman, Bauer, 2014 (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the poorly explored savannah of western Angola

We here describe a new species of feather-tailed leaf-toed gecko, , from southern Benguela Province, Angola, based on morphological and osteological evidence, supported by phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial data. The new species adds to the rapidly growing and newly-recognised endemic biodiversity of Angola, doubling the number of species, breaking the pattern observed within other closely-related African members of a clade of circum-Indian Ocean leaf-toed geckos - , and - all of which are presently monotypic. The new species is easily distinguished from , based on spine-like (as opposed to feather-like) scales on the margins of the original tail. Phylogenetic analyses also recovered the new taxon as monophyletic, with a well-supported sister relationship to , from which it differs by a substantial 24.1% NADH-dehydrogenase subunit 2 mitochondrial gene uncorrected p-distance.