Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Common House Gecko

Hemidactylus frenatus

Description:

(from Wikipedia): The Common House Gecko, scientific name Hemidactylus frenatus, is a native of southeastern Asia. It is also known as the Pacific house gecko, the Asian house gecko, or simply, the house lizard. They can be seen climbing walls of houses and other buildings in search of insects attracted to porch lights, hence their name. Spread around the world by ships, these geckos are now common in the southern half of the United States, large parts of tropical and sub-tropical Australia, and many other countries in South and Central America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. They grow to a length of between three to six inches (about 7.5–15 cm), and live for about five years.

Habitat:

A tropical gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus thrives in warm, humid areas where it can crawl around on rotting wood in search of the insects it eats. The animal is very adaptable and may prey on insects and spiders, displacing other reptiles.

They have a fairly world-wide distribution, favoring more humid, tropical climates.

Notes:

Typical "gecko" or "jing-jok" that you see everywhere in Thailand. This one was on the tree by the bus stop in front of Summakorn Village, same tree as my Singapore Ant spotting (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/847...). I'm always impressed with the camouflage on these. On a dark background, they pass very well for lichens on tree bark. This one was about 15 cm long.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

BioAlex
BioAlex 12 years ago

This is the smaller one. "Took-kae" (the Tokay Gecko, scientific name Gecko gecko) is a bit harder to photograph since they mainly come out at night. Although once, as I was walking down my soi to go to school in the early morning, one fell out of a tree and almost landed on me! It was pretty good sized, about 30 cm long. I don't know if it was trying to land on me, or just bad luck, but it was an interesting experience.

GavinCharoenmin
GavinCharoenmin 12 years ago

Nice Shot, by the way in Thai gecko is called "took-kae" and "Jing-Jok" is the smaller one ((:

BioAlex
Spotted by
BioAlex

Bangkok กรุงเทพมหานคร, กรุงเทพมหานคร, Thailand

Spotted on Feb 21, 2012
Submitted on Feb 21, 2012

Related Spottings

House Gecko House lizard/gecko Gecko House Gecko

Nearby Spottings

Singapore Ant Asian Death-head Hawk Moth Asian Cockroach Oyster Mushroom
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team