Hemidactylus (from Ancient Greek ἡμι- (hēmi-), meaning 'half', and δάκτυλος (dáktulos), meaning 'finger') is a genus of the common gecko family, Gekkonidae. It has 199 www.reptile-database.org. Accessed September 2023. described species, newfound ones being described every few years. These geckos are found in all the tropical regions of the world, extending into the subtropical parts of Africa and Europe. They excel in colonizing oceanic islands by rafting on flotsam, and are for example found across most of Polynesia. In some archipelagoes, cryptic species complexes are found. Geckos like to live in and out of houses. They have been introduced to many areas around the world.
This species is closely related to the genus Gehyra, which belongs to the same family in Gekkonidae.
The species are typically known as house geckos, due to their readiness to adapt to and coexist with humans, and can be easily encountered in human habitations.
Taxonomy This genus was originally established by Lorenz Oken in 1817 for the species at that time known as Hemidactylus tuberculosus, and now described as the tropical house gecko (Hemidactylus mabouia). The species name in turn comes from the Greek words hemi "half" and dáktylos "fingers" because its toes have split or "half" lamella underneath them.
Evolution The origin of the genus Hemidactylus is still unclear as the higher level phylogeny is not well resolved. Moreover, much of the diversity in this group still remains to be discovered.
Feces A house gecko will usually confine its excretions to one area of a house. This is sometimes considered a nuisance by home owners, and may stain certain surfaces. The feces are approximately five (5) millimeters in length, two (2) millimeters wide, and dark brown (almost black) in color.
Description
The dorsal scale pattern is either uniform or heterogeneous. The pupil of the eye is vertical. Males have pre-anal or femoral pores. Each finger or toe has a slender distal clawed joint, angularly bent and rising from within the extremity of the dilated portion.Boulenger, G.A. (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. (Genus Hemidactylus, p. 82). Fulltext at the Internet Archive
The fingers and toes are free, or more or less webbed, and dilated; underneath they bear a straight line running down their lamellae, which is in a pattern resembling a paripinnate compound leaf. This leads to their other and more ambiguous common name, "leaf-toed geckos", used mainly for species from South Asia and its surroundings to prevent confusion with the many "leaf-toed" Gekkota not in Hemidactylus.
Some members of the genus, such as H. platyurus, are able to run quadrupedally across water by a partially surface tension-dependent mechanism distinct from the bipedal gait of basilisks.
Communication Like many other gecko species, species in the genus Hemidactylus are able to communicate with distinct vocalizations. Depending on the species, their vocalizations range from quiet clicks to short squeaks and chirps. For example, the Asian common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is notable for its distinctive chirping.
Species
Hemidactylus aaronbaueri Giri, 2008 – Aaron Bauer's house gecko Hemidactylus acanthopholis Mirza & Sanap, 2014 Hemidactylus achaemenidicus Hemidactylus adensis Šmíd et al., 2014 Hemidactylus aemulus Kumar, A. Srinivasulu & C. Srinivasulu, 2022 Hemidactylus afarensis – Afar gecko Hemidactylus agrius Vanzolini, 1978 – country leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus albituberculatus J.-F. Trape, 2012 Hemidactylus albivertebralis J.-F. Trape & Böhme, 2012 Hemidactylus albofasciatus Grandison & Soman, 1963 – white-striped viper gecko Hemidactylus albopunctatus Loveridge, 1947 – white-spotted gecko, white-spotted leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus alfarraji Šmid, Shobrak, Wilms, Joger & Carranza, 2016 Hemidactylus alkiyumii Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus almakhwah Šmíd, Uvizl, Shobrak, Busais, Salim, R. Algethami, A. Algethami, Alanazi, Alsubaie, Rovatsos, Nováková, Mazuch & Carranza, 2022 Hemidactylus angulatus Hallowell, 1854 Hemidactylus ansorgii Boulenger, 1901 – Nigerian leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus aporus Boulenger, 1906 – Annobon leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus aquilonius McMahan & Zug, 2007 Hemidactylus arnoldi Lanza, 1978 – Arnold's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus asirensis Šmid, Shobrak, Wilms, Joger & Carranza, 2016 Hemidactylus awashensis Šmíd et al., 2014 Hemidactylus barbierii Sindaco, Razzetti & Ziliani, 2007 Hemidactylus barbouri Loveridge, 1942 – Barbour’s leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus barodanus Boulenger, 1901 – enigmatic gecko Hemidactylus bavazzanoi Lanza, 1978 – Somali banded gecko, Bavazzano’s gecko Hemidactylus bayonii Bocage, 1893 – Barboza's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus benguellensis Bocage, 1893 – Benguela house gecko Hemidactylus beninensis Bauer, Tchibozo, Pauwels & Lenglet, 2006 Hemidactylus biokoensis Wagner, Leaché & Fujita, 2014 – Bioko leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus boavistensis Boulenger, 1906 – Boa Vista leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus bouvieri (Bocourt, 1870) – Bouvier's leaf-toed gecko, Cape Verde leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus bowringii (Gray, 1845) – Oriental leaf-toed gecko, Bowring's gecko, Sikkimese dark-spotted gecko, Asian smooth gecko Hemidactylus brasilianus Amaral, 1935 – Amaral's Brazilian gecko Hemidactylus brookii Gray, 1845 – Brooke's house gecko, spotted house gecko Hemidactylus carivoensis Lobón-Rovira, Conradie, Iglesias, R. Ernst, L. Veríssimo, Baptista & Pinto, 2021 Hemidactylus chikhaldaraensis Agarwal, Bauer, Giri & Khandekar, 2019 – Chikhaldara brookiish gecko Hemidactylus chipkali Mirza & Raju, 2017 – Central Indian leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus cinganji Lobón-Rovira, Conradie, Iglesias, R. Ernst, L. Veríssimo, Baptista & Pinto, 2021 Hemidactylus citernii Boulenger, 1912 – speedy leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus coalescens Wagner, Leaché & Fujita, 2014 Hemidactylus craspedotus Mocquard, 1890 – Mocquard's house gecko, frilled gecko, frilled house gecko Hemidactylus curlei Parker, 1942 – Parker's gecko, northern leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus dawudazraqi Moravec, Kratochvíl, Amr, Jandzik, Šmíd & Gvoždík, 2011 Hemidactylus depressus Gray, 1842 – Sri Lankan leaf-nosed gecko, Kandyan gecko Hemidactylus dracaenacolus Rösler & Wranik, 1999 Hemidactylus easai S. Das, Pal, Siddharth, Palot, Deepak & Narayanan, 2022 Hemidactylus echinus O'Shaughnessy, 1875 – hedgehog leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus endophis Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus eniangii Wagner, Leaché & Fujita, 2014 Hemidactylus farasani Šmíd, Uvizl, Shobrak, Busais, Salim, R. Algethami, A. Algethami, Alanazi, Alsubaie, Rovatsos, Nováková, Mazuch & Carranza, 2022 – Farasan gecko Hemidactylus fasciatus Gray, 1842 – banded leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus faustus Lobón-Rovira, Conradie, Iglesias, R. Ernst, L. Veríssimo, Baptista & Pinto, 2021 Hemidactylus festivus Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus flavicauda Lajmi, Giri, Singh & Agarwal, 2020 – Mahabubnagar yellow-tailed brookiish gecko Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rüppell, 1835 – yellow-bellied gecko, northern house gecko Hemidactylus forbesii Boulenger, 1899 – Socotra leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus foudaii S. Baha El Din, 2003 Hemidactylus fragilis Calabresi, 1915 Hemidactylus frenatus Schlegel, 1836 – common house gecko, Asian house gecko, Pacific house gecko Hemidactylus funaiolii Lanza, 1978 – Archer's post gecko, Kenya leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus garnotii A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1836 – Indo-Pacific gecko, Garnot's house gecko, fox gecko, Assam greyish-brown gecko Hemidactylus giganteus Stoliczka, 1871 – giant leaf-toed gecko, giant southern tree gecko, giant gecko Hemidactylus gleadowi Murray, 1884 – Gleadow's house gecko Hemidactylus gracilis Blanford, 1870 – graceful leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus gramineus Ceríaco, Bauer, Kusamba, Agarwal & Greenbaum, 2021 Hemidactylus granchii Lanza, 1978 – Granchi's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus graniticolus Agarwal, Giri & Bauer, 2011Angarwal I, Giri VB, Bauer AM (2011). "A new cryptic rock-dwelling Hemidactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from south India". Zootaxa 2765: 21–37. (Hemidactylus graniticolus, new species). Hemidactylus granosus Heyden, 1827 Hemidactylus granti Boulenger, 1899 – Grant's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus greeffii Bocage, 1886 – Greeff's gecko,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Hemidactylus greeffii, p. 107; Cyrtodactylus malcolmsmithi, p. 247). Greeff's giant gecko www.reptile-database.org. Hemidactylus gujaratensis Giri, Bauer, Vyas & S. Patil, 2009 – Gujarat gecko Hemidactylus hajarensis Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus hegdei Pal & Mirza, 2022 Hemidactylus hemchandrai Dandge & Tiple, 2015 Hemidactylus homoeolepis Blanford, 1881 – Arabian leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus hunae Deraniyagala, 1937 – spotted giant gecko Hemidactylus imbricatus Bauer et al., 2008 – carrot-tailed viper gecko Hemidactylus inexpectatus Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus inintellectus Sindaco, Ziliani, Razzetti, Pupin, Grieco, 2009 – Socotran rock gecko Hemidactylus isolepis Boulenger, 1895 – scaly leaf-toed gecko, uniform-scaled gecko Hemidactylus ituriensis Schmidt, 1919 – Ituri leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus jubensis Boulenger, 1895 – Ethiopian gecko, Mrioen leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus jumailiae Busais & Joger, 2011 Hemidactylus kamdemtohami Bauer & Pauwels, 2002 – Kamdem Toham's gecko Hemidactylus kangerensis Mirza, Bhosale & R. Patil, 2017 Hemidactylus karenorum (Theobald, 1868) – Burmese spotted gecko, Burmese leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus kimbulae Amarasinghe, Karunarathna, P. Campbell, Madawala & de Silva, 2021 Hemidactylus klauberi Scortecci, 1948 Hemidactylus kolliensis Agarwal, Bauer, Giri & Khandekar, 2019 – Kolli rock gecko Hemidactylus kundaensis Chirio & J.-F. Trape, 2012 Hemidactylus kushmorensis Murray, 1884 – Kushmore house gecko Hemidactylus kyaboboensis Wagner, Leaché & Fujita, 2014 Hemidactylus laevis Boulenger, 1901 – common leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus lamaensis Ullenbruch, Grell & Böhme, 2010 Hemidactylus lankae Deraniyagala, 1953 – termite hill gecko, Sri Lankan leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus lanzai Hemidactylus laticaudatus L.G. Andersson, 1910 – Andersson's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus lavadeserticus Moravec & Bohme, 1997 – Syrian house gecko Hemidactylus lemurinus Arnold, 1980 – Dhofar leaf-toed gecko, Oman ghost leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus leschenaultii A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1836 – Leschenault's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus longicephalus Bocage, 1873 Hemidactylus lopezjuradoi Arnold, Vasconcelos, Harris, Mateo & Carranza, 2008 (formerly in H. bouvieri) Hemidactylus luqueorum Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) – tropical house gecko, Afro-American house gecko, cosmopolitan house gecko Hemidactylus macropholis Boulenger, 1896 – Boulenger’s gecko, large-scaled leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus maculatus A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1836 – spotted leaf-toed gecko, giant spotted gecko Hemidactylus mahonyi Adhikari, Achyuthan, Kumar, Khot, Shreeram & Ganesh, 2022 Hemidactylus makolowodei Bauer, LeBreton, Chirio, Ineich & Talla Kouete, 2006 Hemidactylus malcolmsmithi (Constable, 1949) – Malcolm's bow-fingered gecko, Smith's bent-toed gecko Hemidactylus mandebensis Šmíd et al., 2014 Hemidactylus masirahensis Carranza & Arnold, 2012 Hemidactylus matschiei (Tornier, 1901) – Togo leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus megalops Parker, 1932 – Parker's leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus mercatorius Gray, 1842 Hemidactylus mindiae S. Baha El Din, 2005 – Mount Sinai gecko Hemidactylus minutus Vasconcelos & Carranza, 2014 Hemidactylus modestus (Günther, 1894) – moderate leaf-toed gecko, Tana River gecko Hemidactylus montanus Busais & Joger, 2011 – mountain leaf-toed gecko Hemidactylus mrimaensis Malonza & Bauer, 2014 – Kaya gecko