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Asian House Gecko

Hemidactylus frenatus

Photo by Francis Floe
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

It has many common names like the common house gecko, Pacific house gecko, wall gecko, house lizard, chipkali, and moon lizard. Their appearance can vary sometimes depending on factors like environment and maturity, making identifying them difficult as sometimes I get them confused with Gehyra mutilata https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1708907696
An easy way to distinguish both species apart is by looking into their toes. The 5th toe of Gehyra mutilata is more pronounced compared that to Hemidactylus frenatus which is a little nub that is barely noticeable, also each of Hemidactylus frenatus toes has a red dot like it was painted.

Habitat:

Found outside home at night, at the last photo I released it back to a tree in which it camouflaged really well. They're native to Southeast Asia but have been introduced elsewhere. Very common inside houses hence the name and also overlap with other small gecko species.

Notes:

They are very common and are sometimes mistaken for other similar-looking but different species of geckos as they overlap with the same habitat. Local name is also "tiki" or "butiki".

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