Added 24 August 2022.
A genus of two species found in south India and Sri Lanka. As far as I am aware neither has been seen in the pet trade.
Boulenger gave the characteristics of the genus (then Calodactylus) as follows: Digits slender at the base, free, with squarish scales inferiorly, with large trapezoid distal and penultimate expansions, the lower surface of which is covered by two large plates separated by a longitudinal groove; all the digits clawed, the claw retractile between the distal plates; in the inner digit, the penultimate expansion is absent. Body covered above with small granular scales, intermixed with larger tubercles; abdominal scales juxtaposed. Pupil vertical. Males without preanal nor femoral pores.
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C. aspratilis, Indian Golden Gecko |
C. heteropholis, Sri Lanka Golden Gecko |
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Scientific Name |
Common Name |
Distribution |
Size |
Notes |
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Calodactylodes |
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Indian Golden Gecko |
India |
TL 169 mm; SVL 89 mm |
As per Tikader and Sharma, this species prefers to live in dark shady ravines or crevices in rocks. Description: head large, oviform, very distinct from neck; snout longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, once and one third the diameter of the orbit; ear-opening vertical, measuring half the diameter of the eye. Body not much depressed. Limbs long, slender. The width of the digital expansion measures about half the diameter of the eye. Scalation details: a strong rounded supraorbital and canthal ridge; five deep concavities, viz. a frontal, two postnasals, and two loreals; Head covered with very small granules, largest on the canthal ridges; rostral four-sided, twice as broad as high, its posterior border concave; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals, the anterior large and in contact with its fellow; twelve or thirteen upper and as many lower labials; mental as large as, or smaller than, the adjacent labials; no regular chinshields, but small polygonal scutes passing gradually into the granules which cover the gular region. Upper surfaces covered with minute granules; back with scattered, scarcely prominent, smooth, round, larger tubercles, hardly as large as the ventral scales; latter flat, smooth, squarish, juxtaposed, arranged like the bricks of a wall. Tail: long, cylindrical, remarkably slender, covered with squarish scales which are much larger inferiorly. Coloration: brownish white above (golden during life), dotted or vermiciilated with brown; lower surfaces whitish. [SOURCE: Boulenger] |
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Sri Lanka Golden Gecko |
Sri Lanka |
6-8cm SVL |
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"A review of the gekkonid genus Calodactylodes (Reptilia: Squamata) from India and Sri Lanka", Aaron M Bauer and Indraneil Das, Journal of South Asian Natural History, Colombo, 5(1), 2000