Last updated 12 September 2001: updated Hoplodactylus and Naultinus, and Bibliography.

A look at the

Subfamily DIPLODACTYLINAE - Diplodactyline Geckos: New Zealand and New Caledonia

Family GEKKONIDAE

Genus Hoplodactylus- Hoplodactylid Geckos

Genus Naultinus - Tree Geckos

Genus Rhacodactylus - Giant Geckos

Genus Bavayia - Bayavia Geckos

Genus Eurydactylodes - Eurydactylodes Geckos

Introduction

The New Zealand and New Caledonian geckos are both interesting. The New Caledonian Rhacodactylus species are the largest geckos in the world, some attaining up to 14", and have lately become somewhat more available to serious herpetologists. The two New Zealand genera come from a land that is often cool and thus have lower temperature requirements: indeed, heat can stress them. They are also ovoviviparous.

Genus HOPLODACTYLUS - Hoplodactylid Geckos

This New Zealand genus comprises seven species of nocturnal geckos, partly terrestrial and partly arboreal. They are brown or grey in colour and have expanded toepads. Coborn reckons they would make good pets but notes that they are rare and protected by law. Formerly they were found on the main islands but were eliminated from this range by the depredations of introduced animals.

*Hoplodactylus*

Scientific name	Common name	Place of origin	Size (max)	Notes
H. chrysoireticus	Gold-Striped Gecko	New Zealand	?	Brown/grey in overall colour with longitudinal stripes.
H. delcourti	Delcourt's Gecko/ Kawekaweau	New Zealand	25-30"	Known only from a single, impressively large, specimen collected in the 18th century, this giant gecko is now sadly believed to be extinct, although it may conceivably have survived in remote areas. If it has, it would easily be the world's largest gecko.
H. duvauceli	Duvaucel's Gecko	New Zealand (offshore islands of North Island, Cook Strait)	12"	Brown/grey in overall colour with greenish mottling which creates excellent camouflage. Unusually, the underside is sometimes darker than the dorsal surfaces. Prefers low scrub on the edges of woodland, where it forages at night. By day it conceals itself under ground litter, fallen tree trunks or occasionally behind loose bark in the burrows of ground-nesting birds (Coborn). The young are relatively large: they are born in late summer/early autumn.
H. granulatus	Forest Gecko	New Zealand	7"	Preferred habitats bushes and trees. Click here for some more pictures.
H. kahutarae	Black-Eyed Gecko	New Zealand (Seaward Kaikoura Range, South Island)	?"	This is an alpine lizard, dwelling about 1,000ft higher than its congenerics in areas covered by snow for 3-5 months of the year. It is extremely rare and considered a threatened species.
H. maculatus	Common Gecko	New Zealand (except Taranaki and Fiordland)	?	Variously considered a member of the Hoplodactylus, Naultinus, Gehyra and a couple of other now-invalid genera before being finally assigned to the Hoplodactylus genus in 1965. Older literature may refer to it as H. digitatus or Gehyra pacifica, while one authority considers it to be the same species as H. granulatus. See the EMBL database entry for details.
H. nebulosus	Cloudy Gecko	New Zealand	?"	Possibly a subspecies of H. granulatus.
H. pacificus	Pacific Gecko	New Zealand	6"	Variably coloured but normally brown/grey in overall colour, marked with bars or chevrons of darker brown. It is fairly common, especially near the coasts. Nocturnal, it spends the day under stones or fallen tree-trunks. In captivity it is apparently easy to care for.
H. rakiurae	Harlequin Gecko	New Zealand (Southern Stewart Island)	?"	Threatened species.
H. stephensi	Stephen's Island Gecko	New Zealand (Stephens and Maud Islands, Cook Strait)	?	Brown/grey in overall colour with longitudinal stripes.

Genus NAULTINUS - Naultinid Geckos

The Naultinus geckos originate from New Zealand. Coborn describes this genus as only having two species, but Rod Rowland in his article on Naultinus elegans (see Bibliography at bottom of page) lists eight (taken from A Complete Guide to Scientific and Common Names of Reptiles and Amphibians of the World, Frank and Ramus, NG Pub. 1995). I have followed the latter system here. Naultinus geckos are all diurnal and green in colour, although markings (usually white blotches or white longitudinal stripes) vary, not only between the species but among individuals. Both species are very arboreal and have prehensile tails which are rarely lost. Mattison notes that in some of these habits they resemble the day geckos of Madagascar, in others the true chameleons of Africa. Naultinus geckos are ovo-viparous, giving birth to two live young.

NAULTINUS GECKOS

Scientific name	Common name	Place of origin	Size (max)	Notes
Naultinus elegans	(North Island) Green Tree Gecko	New Zealand (North Island, except Northland)	5½"	N. elegans occurs in a number of forms, plain, spotted or striped, and occasionally overall lemon yellow, again with variable markings. The inside of the mouth is dark blue with a black tongue. Scrub is the favoured habitat: the geckos will often bask on the tops of bushes. At night or in bad weather they shelter under ground litter or loose bark. Mating takes place in September, but the young are not born for nearly a year: this is probably the longest gestation of any lizard.
N. e. pentagonalis	(North Island) Green Tree Gecko	New Zealand (North Island)	8"	Subspecies of the above, larger and more robust but less variable in colour. It is found in the southern part of the range of N. elegans.
N. gemmeus	South Island Tree Gecko/ Jewelled Gecko	New Zealand (South Island, presumably!)	?
N. grayii	Northland Green Gecko/Gray's Tree Gecko	New Zealand (Northland, North Island)	?
N. manukanus	Marlborough Green Gecko	New Zealand	?	See the comment in the EMBL database entry about possible evolutionary interaction with N. rudis.
N. poecilochlorus	Lewis Pass Green Gecko/ Central Tree Gecko	New Zealand	?	This gecko was described only in 1980.
N. rudis	Rough Green Gecko/Natural Tree Gecko	New Zealand	?
N. simpsoni	?	New Zealand (end of North Island)	?	In captivity has similar requirements to N. elegans. NB This one was not included in the list given by Frank and Ramus: further enquiry may be worthwhile.
N. stellatus	Starry Tree Gecko	New Zealand	?
N. tuberculatus	West Coast Green Gecko /Warty Tree Gecko	New Zealand	?

Genus RHACODACTYLUS - New Caledonian Geckos

A small genus (6 species) of large geckos that are in fact almost giants compared to the rest of their family. These geckos have lately become available in the West, although it is to be hoped that they will be bred in captivity and not over-collected from their native habitat.

NEW CALEDONIAN GECKOS

Scientific name	Common name	Place of origin	Size (max)	Notes
Rhacodactylus leachianus	?	New Caledonia	12-14"	Probably the largest gecko in the world.
R. ciliatus	Crested Gecko	New Caledonia	?"	Ovo-viviparous.
R. auriculatus	?	New Caledonia	?	Arboreal, with slightly prehensile tail. Overall colour is pale green-brown, with longitudinal stripes of pale brown or yellow running along its flanks. The head is large and angular.
R. chahoua	?	New Caledonia	?	Large and stocky species with an effective camouflage of green, brown and pink mottling over the back and tail that conceal it when resting on a lichen-covered trunk.
R. cavaticus	?	New Caledonia	?	No data available.

Genus BAVAYIA - Bavayia Geckos

A small genus that until recently counted as having only 2 species (Rogner, 1992). Two more were proposed in 1998 by Bauer, Whitaker and Sadlier, Bavayia exsuccida and Bavayia pulchella: for the details of this discovery click here. Herp-edia.com lists nine species, but so far I have not found any details of the ones not listed below. These small geckos have virtually the same range as the much bigger Rhacodactylus species: the latter, however, are not found on the Loyalty Islands.

BAVAYIA GECKOS

Scientific name	Common name	Place of origin	Size (max)	Notes
Bavayia cyclura	?	New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands	4"	Small grey- to dark-brown geckos with darker lateral bands or irregular outlined blotches, but distinguishable especially by a yellow area on the sides that becomes pronounced around the rear limbs. These geckos are social creatures and are often found in groups of up to 6 in a hollow trunk. They also seem to dwell alongside the much larger Rhacodactylus species. Their preferred habitat is hollow or dead trees, and Rogner notes that they prefer drier conditions to Bavayia sauvagii. He recommends keeping them in the same manner as Rhacodactylus geckos. For a picture of B. cyclura click here..
Bavayia sauvagii	?	New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands	4"	Similar to B. cyclura but distinguishable by a single row of preanal pores as opposed to the double row of the other species.
Bavayia excuccida	?	New Caledonia	?	Very recently proposed species - see EMBL and Pacific Science, vol. 52 no. 4, October 1998 for details. From the latter it is clear that at least one of these species has a very restricted range and may be threatened unless its habitat is protected.
Bavayia pulchella	?	New Caledonia	?

Genus EURYDACTYLODES - Eurydactylodes Geckos

Small genus, both found on the main island of New Caledonia ("Grande terre"). Information on these geckos seems extremely hard to come by.

EURYDACTYLODES GECKOS

Scientific name	Common name	Place of origin	Size (max)	Notes
E. symmetricus	?	S New Caledonia	7"	No data available.
E. vieillardi	?	E. & C. New Caledonia	7"?	Arboreal, bark-green gecko that seems perfectly camouflaged against tree trunks. The tail is fairly long. Click here for the German "Nephurus" website photographs.

Bibliography

The information above was culled from a number of sources, including Mattison. The Gekko-specific books are as follows:

Lizards of the World, Mattison

Breeding and Keeping Geckos, Coborn, TFH 1995 - a particularly valuable book for lesser known geckos, especially the Diplodactylines.

Keeping and Breeding Lizards, Mattison

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

Reptile & Amphibian Magazine, Jan-Feb 1996, has a good article by Rod Rowlands on the Green Tree Gecko of New Zealand.

Reptiles of the Townsville Region has some good pictures of various of the above geckos.

Recently the Caitlins Blue-Eyed Gecko was discovered in forests in New Zealand after a prolonged scarcity.

A good concise site on New Zealand's native geckos.

Richart's "Hoplodactylus Canterbury" - very nice pictures of a beautiful gecko.

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