Pachydactylus austeni, also known commonly as Austen's thick-toed gecko or Austen's gecko, is a species of small thick-toed gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is indigenous to the western coast of South Africa.
Etymology The specific name, austeni, is in honour of English topographer Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen.Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Pachydactylus austeni, p. 13).
Habitat, behaviour and diet The natural habitat of P. austeni is coastal dunes and alluvial sands, at elevations up to . It lives in a tiny burrow that it digs in the sand, and it leaves its burrow at night to forage for small insects among the dune vegetation.
Description P. austeni has a smooth, colourful body with large eyes and conspicuous yellow or white eyelids.
Reproduction P. austeni is oviparous.
References
Further reading Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (Pachydactylus austeni, pp. 250–251 + Plate 82). Hewitt J (1923). "Descriptions of Two New S. African Geckos of the Genus Pachydactylus ". Annals of the Natal Museum 5: 67–71. (Pachydactylus austeni, new species, pp. 67–69 + Plate IV, figures 1 & 2). Loveridge A (1947). "Revision of the African Lizards of the Family Gekkonidae". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College 98 (1): 1–469 + Plates 1–7. (Pachydactylus austeni, p. 349). Rösler H (2000). "Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha)". Gekkota 2: 28–153. (Pachydactylus austeni, p. 98). (in German).