Infraorder GEKKOTA - Geckos

Family GEKKONIDAE

Family GEKKONIDAE - the Typical Geckos

This subfamily represents the "typical" geckos, ie its species have the climbing pads, arboreal behaviour, lack of eyelids and often vocal abilities that to most people characterised geckos. It is also by far the largest, containing several genera and about 950 species, despite losing several genera to the families Phyllodactylidae and Sphaerodactylidae.

Due to the huge size of this subfamily, the following list of genera is arranged alphabetically. In one way this is a pity, since an alphabetical arrangement does not correspond to the importance of some genera and the rarity of others. Therefore I have placed a '*' at the end of each genus listing which is most likely contain species that are regularly offered for sale.

Scientific Name	Common Name	Distribution	# of Species	Notes
Afroedura	Rock Geckos	Southern Africa	9
Afrogecko		Southern Africa	3
Agamura	Spider Geckos	Middle East & C Asia	4	Common name derives from strikingly thin limbs.
Ailuronyx	Seychelles Skin-Sloughing Geckos	Seychelles (Indian Ocean)	3
Alsophylax	Straight-Fingered Geckos	C Asia and Indian subcontinent	7
Altiphylax		C Asia, Indian subcontinent and W China	8
Blaesodactylus	Malagasy Velvet Geckos	Madagascar	3	Placed by some authorities in the genus Homopholis.
Bunopus		Middle East inc. Arabia, C Asia	4
Calodactylodes		India and Sri Lanka	2
Chondrodactylus	Comb-Fingered Geckos	Namibia	1
Christinus		Australia	2
Cnemaspis		W & E Africa, India and SE Asia	43	Absence from Middle East and C Asia may be explicable by requirement for tree cover and humidity
Colopus	Kalahari Ground Gecko	Southern Africa	1
Cosymbotus		India and SE Asia, USA (introduced into Florida)	2
Crossobamon	Comb-Toed Geckos	C Asia and Indian subcontinent	2
Cryptactites	Coastal Leaf-Toed Geckos	Republic of South Africa	1
Cyrtodactylus	Bent-/ Bow-Toed Geckos		76
Cyrtopodion	Thin-Toed Geckos	S Europe, C Asia to Indian subcontinent	35
Dixonius		Thailand	5
Dravidogecko	Southern Forest Gecko	India	1	Synonymised by some authorities with Hemidactylus.
Ebenavia	Malagasy Geckos	Madagascar, Tanzania and Mauritius	2
Elasmodactylus		C & SE Africa	2	Formerly part of the genus Pachydactylus.
Geckoella		India and Sri Lanka	7
Geckolepis		Madagascar	3
Geckonia	Helmet Geckos	North Africa	1	Now reassigned.
Gehyra	Sugar Geckos	Indo-Pacific	34
Gekko	True or Calling Geckos*	Asia	30	Large, colourful and vocal geckos: includes the Tokay Gecko G. gecko
Goggia	Leaf-Toed Geckos	Southern Africa	8
Hemidactylus	Leaf-Toed Geckos*	Originally Africa: now distributed also in Asia, Australia and the Americas	78	A few species of this large genus are offered frequently in the pet trade.
Hemiphyllodactylus	Half-Leaf-Fingered Geckos	India, China, SE Asia, Oceania: introduced into Japan and Hawaii	4
Homopholis	African Velvet Geckos	Sub-Saharan Africa	3
Lepidodactylus	Dwarf Geckos	SE Asia, Oceania and Australia, introduced into the Americas	31	L. lugubris, the most widespread species of the genus, is parthenogenetic in at least some populations.
Luperosaurus	Wolf Geckos	Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia	8
Lygodactylus	Dwarf/Painted Geckos	Africa and Madagascar	63
Matoatoa		Madagascar	2
Mediodactylus		Europe, Middle East and Central Asia	13	Former Carinatogecko/Cyrtopodion/Cyrtodactylus species.
Microgecko				Former Tropiocolotes species.
Nactus		Mauritius, Oceania, Indonesia and Australia	8	Most species in this genus were formerly members of others. Some parthenogenetic populations.
Narudasia	Festive Geckos	Namibia	1
Pachydactylus	Thick-Fingered Geckos*	Southern Africa	39	Includes the popular P. ocellatus, formerly often mistakenly labelled P. bibroni.
Palmatogecko	Web-Footed Geckos	Namibia	1	Now considered by some authorities to belong to Pachydactylus.
Paragehyra		Madagascar	2
Paroedura	Big-Headed Geckos *	Madagascar	15
Perochirus	Tropical Geckos	Philippines, Oceania and Japan	3
Phelsuma	Day Geckos*	Madagascar, Indian Ocean and occasionally Africa	40	Extremely colourful and popular diurnal lizards. Some are tricky to maintain in captivity.
Pseudogekko	False Geckos	Philippines	4
Ptenopus	Barking Geckos	Southern Africa	3	Vocal geckos
Ptychozoon	Flying/Gliding Geckos	SE Asia	6	Species glide by means of skin flaps between limbs and body
Rhinogecko		Middle East and Central Asia	2	Former Agamura species.
Rhoptropella	Namaqua Day Gecko	Namibia and RSA	1
Rhoptropus	Namib Day Geckos	Southern Africa	7	Found in other countries besides Namibia.
Stenodactylus	Short-Fingered Geckos	Middle East, Arabia, North Africa, Horn of Africa and Kenya	11
Tenuidactylus		C Asia	7	Former Cyrtodactylus/Cyrtopodion species.
Teratolepis	Viper Geckos	India	2	Now considered part of Hemidactylus.
Tropiocolotes	Dwarf/Pygmy Geckos*	N Africa	8	1 species regularly offered in pet trade
Urocotyledon		W & E Africa, Seychelles	5
Uroplatus	Leaf-Tailed Geckos*	Madagascar	14	Fascinating if somewhat bizarre-looking animals: not for beginners

Bibliography

General Care and Maintenance of Tokay Geckos and Related Species, McKeown and Zaworski, Herpetocultural Library 1997. If you want to keep any of the Gekko, Ptychozoon or Cyrtodactylus species, I thoroughly recommend this book.

Lizards of the World, Mattison

Keeping and Breeding Lizards, Mattison

Lizard-Keeper's Handbook, de Vosjoli, Herpetocultural Library Series, 1994.

Lizard Care from A to Z, Bartlett and Bartlett, Barrons 1997.

Echsen [Lizards] 1, Rogner, Ulmer 1992.

Geckos: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual, Bartlett and Bartlett, Barrons 1995.

Geckos: Keeping and Breeding Them in Captivity, Walls and Walls, TFH 1999.

Breeding and Keeping Geckos, Coborn, TFH 1995. Both Coborn and the Walls' book offer excellent information on many of the gecko species, including some useful descriptions of the rarer Australo-Pacific species, as does Rogner's book.

Grzimek, Volume 6, Reptiles. (see Bibliography on the main Gecko page).

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