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Spotting

Description:

Tiny peach colored gecko with large blue eyes. Snout to vent length about 2 inches.

Habitat:

Found on the beach near the mangroves.

Species ID Suggestions



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15 Comments

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 11 years ago

@Lives... There are 2 velvet geckos (genus Oedura ="swollen tail") in or about range. From the discussion below, the tail was described as not swollen. Anyway these two (gracilis and filicipoda) look very different. http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squ...
@Jack,@Jellis ID'ing from images alone is inherently fraught with risk and a higher probability of inaccuracy...yet we persist :-) Reiterating what I said in my comments below, Lucasium stenodactylum has the right toes and sometimes has a plainer appearance without the Y-stripe. This has to be one of my top 5 spotting researches in terms of time spent. I cannot say it is that species but it is the closest I've come, and...and this is important...it is in range :-)

LivesInADream
LivesInADream 11 years ago

Perhaps a velvet gecko?

Jellis
Jellis 11 years ago

Then I'm stumped. Difficult finding a tranluscent clawless gecko that looks like that.

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 11 years ago

I personally don't think so. I have H. frenatus in my house, but more importantly if you look at the vast majority of "toe shots" (e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/48991563@N0... or http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/spe... or http://www.ozanimals.com/Reptile/Asian-H... and many others), the fore toes are slightly webbed and clawed, unlike above.

JackWanamaker
JackWanamaker 11 years ago

Good suggestion Jellis, I think you could be correct. The size, toe shape, color and pattern all seem to fit. S Frazier, thoughts?

Jellis
Jellis 11 years ago

How about a Common House Gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:House_...

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 11 years ago

I saw that but since the AROD range map http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squ... puts it far south of the Dampier peninsula, I didn't go any further...

JackWanamaker
JackWanamaker 11 years ago

Another possibility is Lucasium wombeyi.

JackWanamaker
JackWanamaker 11 years ago

Thank you for the effort and the great resource! As for the tail, I remember it being a natural continuation of the body, that is that it wasn't bulbous, strangely shaped, or of a different pattern/color than the rest of the body. It seems as though slightly different colorations and patterns are available to geckos within the same species in this genus.

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 11 years ago

Well Jack, it's possible but I'm not absolutely sure in this case. One thing that would help narrow it is if you can remember the type of tail. I went through the AROD list Twice, looking at both range and images. Still I suppose I could have missed something. Tantalizingly, http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/view... includes this caption "MOST [my emphasis] showed a "Y" pattern on the back of the neck to the dorsal stripe." for Lucasium stenodactylum. (Search the page using the species name and it'll take you right there).

BenWanamaker
BenWanamaker 11 years ago

Beautiful eye.

Nimbid Ditavi
Nimbid Ditavi 11 years ago

Magnificent species! And great action shots Jack!

JackWanamaker
JackWanamaker 11 years ago

Is it a possibility that this individual is leucistic?

JackWanamaker
JackWanamaker 11 years ago

Thanks for the info S Frazer, I think you're on track with the ID, but I can't find anything in that genus with such pink hues.

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 11 years ago

Hello Jack. I don't think this is a Gehyra sp. Why? It's in the toes... This gecko has straight digits (no webbing). It would really help to know the type of tail it has. It is similar in size and toes to Lucasium stenodactylum http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_qu... which is in range, but seems to lack the characteristic stripe. Also, the best way to signal to the community that a critter needs an ID is to tick the box "Help me ID this species" and leave the scientific name completely blank. If you put a question mark there, the software reads the field as filled and therefore ID'ed. I blanked it for you :-)

JackWanamaker
Spotted by
JackWanamaker

Western Australia, Australia

Spotted on Feb 18, 2013
Submitted on Feb 18, 2013

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