Subfamily GEKKONINAE - "True" Geckos

Scientific Name

Common Name

Distribution

Size

Notes

Euleptes

E. europaeus

European Leaf-Toed Gecko

Tyrrhenian islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Tunisian islands, NW Italian coast

2½-3"

Unusual feet possess lamellae in the form of a forked pad only at the tip, with a sharp claw protruding in the middle. Click here for a page on Euleptes [Phyllodactylus] europaeus. Description: head oviform, much longer than broad ; snout rounded, as long as the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, once and one third the diameter of the orbit; forehead concave; ear-opening small, round. Body short; limbs rather strong. Digits relatively much depressed in their basal part, inferiorly with transverse lamellae, the greater number of which are generally broken up into small scales forming three longitudinal series; digital expansion moderately large, roundish, its diameter half or three fifths that of the eye. Scalation details: upper surfaces covered with equal small smooth granules. Rostral pentagonal, the posterior angle frequently truncate; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals, the anterior largest; nine or ten upper and as many lower labials; mental broadly trapezoid; no regular chin-shields, but very small polygonal scales passing gradually into the minute granules of the throat. Abdominal scales small, smooth, imbricate. Tail: cylindrical, slightly depressed, tapering, prehensile, covered with (equal small squarish scales arranged in verticils. Coloration: grey-brown above, marbled with darker and dotted with lighter; a more or less distinctly marked dark streak on the side of the head, passing through the eye; lower surfaces whitish. [SOURCE: Boulenger]