Marbled leaf-toed gecko

Marbled leaf-toed gecko
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Gekkonidae
Genus:	Afrogecko Bauer, Good, & Branch, 1997
Species:	A. porphyreus
Binomial name
Afrogecko porphyreus (Daudin, 1802)
Synonyms
Gecko porphyreus Daudin, 1802 Phyllodactylus porphyreus (Daudin, 1802)

The marbled leaf-toed gecko (Afrogecko porphyreus) is a gecko found in southern and southwestern South Africa (including many offshore islands) and in Namibia. It is a flat, medium-sized gecko.

Description

Afrogecko porphyreus, Cape marbled gecko, male with a regenerated tail. Unusually pale in colour.

Afrogecko porphyreus, Cape marbled gecko with a vivid colour pattern. The pale calcium-rich swellings behind the jaw angles indicate that it is a female.

Afrogecko porphyreus has a mottled, greyish body, a long tail and sometimes a pale stripe along its back. However, its coloration varies from almost black-and-buff patterning, to smudged shades of buff. It is an adaptable little forager, hiding under debris, beneath bark, among rocks and even in city houses.

These geckos eat large numbers of small insects, so a population of them living on one's property serves as a natural form of pest-control. Their diet is an array of invertebrates, including feeder insects. However, domestic cats commonly kill large numbers of these little lizards, sometimes exterminating them in a local area. They also are preyed upon by species of spiders in the genus Palystes, that may be more effective gecko predators than cats are.

As in many similar gecko species, one of their major defences is autotomy of their tails, and in some populations, nearly all mature specimens have tails either regenerated, or in the process of regeneration.

Distribution

This gecko occurs commonly in the southern parts of South Africa, from Cape Town (where it now inhabits suburban gardens) eastwards as far as the Eastern Cape.

A. porphyreus are not aggressive or territorial, and several of them will often live together in a single retreat. These sociable lizards will even share nests, where several females will lay their eggs.