Asian smooth gecko, Bowring's gecko, Bowring's smooth gecko, Sikkimese dark-spotted gecko
The Oriental leaf-toed gecko (Hemidactylus bowringii), also known commonly as the Asian smooth gecko, Bowring's gecko, Bowring's smooth gecko, and the Sikkimese dark-spotted gecko, is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is native to East Asia.
The specific name, bowringii, is in honor of either John Charles Bowring, who was a British amateur naturalist and businessman in Hong Kong, or his father John Bowring, who was a British diplomat and a governor of Hong Kong.
An insectivore is a carnivorous plant or animal that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of e...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some anima...
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starts withBoulenger (1885) described H. bowringii as follows: "Snout longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, 1.4 times the diameter of the orbit; forehead slightly concave; ear-opening small, roundish. Body and limbs moderate; a slight fold of the skin along the flank. Digits free, moderately dilated, inner well developed; infradigital lamellae obliquely curved, 5 under the thumb, 7 or 8 under the fourth finger, 5 or 6 under the first toe, and 9 or 10 under the fourth toe. Upper surfaces covered with uniform small granular scales, largest on the snout, smallest on the occiput. Rostral four-sided, twice as broad as deep, with median cleft above; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three or four nasals; 9 to 11 upper and 7 or 8 lower labials; mental large, triangular, followed by a pair of chin-shields; an outer pair of much smaller chin-shields. Abdominal scales moderate, cycloid, imbricate. Male with a series of preanal pores, interrupted mesially, composed of 13 pores on each side. Tail depressed, rounded, oval in section, covered above with uniform small scales, beneath with a median series of transversely dilated plates. Light brown above, with darker spots, having sometimes a tendency to form four longitudinal bands on the back; frequently small whitish spots on the body and limbs; a dark streak passing through the eye; tail above with small chevron-shaped markings; lower surfaces whitish.
From snout to vent 1.3 in (3.3 cm); tail 2 in (5.1 cm)."
Hemidactylus bowringii is found in East Asia, including Bhutan, Nepal, southern China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam (Ha Noi; Hon Thom Island), and Japan (Ryukyu Islands = Okinawa).
The preferred natural habitat of H. bowringii is forest, at altitudes from sea level to 1,250 m (4,100 ft), but it has also been found in plantations and around man-made structures in urban areas.
Hemidactylus bowringii is oviparous. Clutch size is 2–3 eggs, which hatch after 30 days of incubation.
