Indo-Pacific gecko

The Indo-Pacific gecko (Hemidactylus garnotii) also known as Garnot's house gecko, the fox gecko, or the Assam greyish brown gecko, is a species of gecko found in India, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Australia, and throughout Polynesia. Adults are about 4 to 5 in (10 to 13 cm) in total length (including tail). They are seen as dark gray or brown with light markings in daylight and a pale, translucent colour at night. The belly is orange or yellow. The head has a long, narrow snout, hence the name fox gecko. The flattened tail has a row of spiny scales on the lateral edges. The species is parthenogenic – all individuals are female and lay eggs that hatch without requiring male fertilisation.[2]

Indo-Pacific gecko
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Gekkonidae
Genus: Hemidactylus
Species:
H. garnotii
Binomial name
Hemidactylus garnotii
Synonyms[1]
  • Hemidactylus garnotii
    A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1836
  • Hoplodion garnotii
    — Fitzinger, 1843
  • Doryura garnotii
    — Gray, 1845
  • Hemidactylus garnotii
    — Boulenger, 1885
  • Lepidodactylus garnotii
    — Henshaw, 1902
  • Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]
    — de Rooij, 1915
  • Hemidactylus garnotii
    — Conant & Collins, 1991

In Hawaii, the species is thought to be a long-term resident. Formerly considered a house gecko, it has been displaced to natural habitats by the more recently arrived common house gecko.[2] In Florida and Georgia it has become established as an invasive species of concern.[3][4]

Etymology

The specific name, garnotii, is in honor of French naturalist Prosper Garnot.[5]

Description

Snout obtusely pointed, longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, 1.5 to 1.6 times the diameter of the orbit; forehead slightly concave; ear-opening small, rounded. Body and limbs moderate. A slight but distinct fold of the skin along the flanks, and another bordering the hind limb posteriorly. Digits free or with a very slight rudiment of web, moderately dilated, inner well developed; infradigital lamellae oblique, 6 or 7 under the inner digits, 10 to 12 under the fourth finger, and 11 to 14 under the fourth toe. Upper surfaces and throat covered with minute granular scales, a little larger on the snout; abdominal scales moderate, imbricate. Rostral subquadrangular, with median cleft above; nostril pierced between the rostral and three nasals; 12 or 13 upper and 9 to 11 lower labials; mental large, triangular, in contact posteriorly with a pair of pentagonal chin-shields, followed by a second smaller pair; the anterior pair of chin-shields in contact with the first infralabial, and with each other mesially; the posterior pair separated from each other, and also completely or nearly completely from the labials. Tail depressed, flat beneath, with sharp denticulated lateral edge; the scales on the upper surface very small, equal; those on the lower surface larger, imbricate, with a median series of large, transversely dilated plates.[6]

Brownish grey above, uniform or with more or less distinct brown and whitish spots; lower surfaces uniform whitish.[6]

Snout to vent length (SVL) 2.3 in (5.8 cm); tail 2.6 in (6.6 cm).[6]

Reproduction

H. garnotii is a parthenogenetic species.[7]

Geographic range

Sikkim, Burma, Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago, South Pacific Islands.

NE Bangladesh, NE India (Darjeeling, Assam, Sikkim), Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar (= Burma), Malaysia, southern China (Hong Kong, Guangdong, Hainan, southern Yunnan), Taiwan, Philippine Islands, New Zealand (introduced), Indonesia (Sumatra, Nias, Borneo, Java), New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, Polynesia, Fiji, Western Samoa.

Introduced into Hawaii, Florida, and the Bahamas.[8]

Type locality: "l'Ile de Taiti [=Tahiti, French Polynesia]".

References
  1. "Hemidactylus garnotii ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. Pascatore, Linda (2008). "Birds and Plants of Kauai: The Gecko" Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. accessed 6 February 2011
  3. Everglades CISMA Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area website, "Indo-Pacific Gecko" page, accessed 6 February 2011
  4. Georgia Invasive Species Task Force website, "Other Invasive Species of Concern in Georgia", accessed 6 February 2011
  5. Beolens, Bo; Watkins' Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Hemidactylus garnotii, p. 98).
  6. Boulenger GA (1890). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 541 pp. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", pp. 94-95).
  7. Kluge AG, Eckardt MJ (1969). "Hemidactylus garnotii Duméril & Bibron, a tripoid, all-female species of gekkonid lizard". Copeia 1969 (4): 651-664.
  8. "Indo-Pacific Gecko". geckoweb. Finding species. Archived from the original on 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2009-01-29.

Further reading
  • Behler JL, King FW (1979). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 743 pp. ISBN 0-394-50824-6. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", pp. 492–493 + Plate 401).
  • Boulenger GA (1885). Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume I. Geckonidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 436 pp. + Plates I-XXXII. (Hemidactylus garnotii, pp. 141–142).
  • Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. + Plates 1-48. ISBN 0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-395-19977-8 (paperback). ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", p. 84 + Plate 17 + Map 43).
  • Crawford, Daniel M.; Somma, Louis A. (1993). "Hemidactylus garnotii (Indo-Pacific gecko)". Herpetological Review 24 (3): 108–109.
  • Das I (2002). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of India. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 144 pp. ISBN 0-88359-056-5. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", p. 98).
  • Duméril AMC, Bibron G (1836). Erpétologie générale ou Histoire naturelle complète des Reptiles, Tome troisième [=Volume 3]. Paris: Roret. iv + 517 pp. (Hemidactylus garnotii, new species, pp. 368–369). (in French).
  • Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0020-4. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", pp. 148, 285).
  • Gray JE (1845). Catalogue of the Specimens of Lizards in the Collection of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum. (Edward Newman, printer). xxviii + 289 pp. (Doryura garnotii, p. 157).
  • Meshaka, Walter E., Jr. (1995). "Hemidactylus garnotii ". Herpetological Review 26 (2): 108.
  • Smith HM, Brodie ED Jr (1982). Reptiles of North America: A Guide to Field Identification. New York: Golden Press. 240 pp. ISBN 0-307-13666-3. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", pp. 68–69).
  • Smith MA (1935). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. II.—Sauria. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 440 pp. + Plate I + 2 maps. ("Hemidactylus garnoti [sic]", pp. 100–101).
  • Stoliczka F (1871). "Notes on new or little-known Indian lizards". Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal (Calcutta) 1871: 192–195.
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