Non-paying guest.. (Garnot's Gecko)

For last few days I was thinking about which reptile should I write on. I didn’t have any wildlife encounter lately. Suddenly a “tick, tick, tick, tick” noise from the room’s wall caught my attention. Two lizards were fighting for territory. That opened my eyes. These lizards are with me every single minute and still I have ignored them till now.

So I opened my guide books to identify the lizards but could not identify them exactly. Only learned that it is kind of a house gecko. Then I got a call from my friend Gudduda. He told me to pick up one book from College St., Kolkata. It was a field guide on Indian reptiles by Indranil Das. I thought may be that can help me. So I rushed to get the book as soon as possible. And yes, this book exactly identified it as Garnot’s Gecko (Hemidactylus garnoti).

This little lizard is very numerous in our area. Each room of our house contains 2-3 individuals at least. They are rarely seen in daytime. Generally hides behind cupboards, bookshelves, cracks on walls or inside ventilators. But as the sun sets, they come out to hunt. Like all other hemidactylus species or rather say geckos, they also maintain individual territories. But where food is numerous like around light bulbs, they don’t maintain territories and gather around to reap the bounty. They are carnivorous. Their main foods are insects, spiders and insect larvae. They eat a great number of them daily.

This gecko grows to about 7cm in length from snout to vent. The tail is about 5-7 cm in length. Tail can break at will and this gives it a opportunity to evade the predators by distracting them. It has a large head. The scales on back are small. It also has lateral denticulation on tail. The overall coloration is brownish grey. Belly is of cream colour.

There are a few very interesting facts about this particular gecko. The first one is about distribution. It is a very widespread species. In India, it is found in Eastern part including West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam. Internationally it is found also in Bhutan, mainland South-east Asia and upto the islands of Pacific Ocean. But locally it does not share space with any other gecko. In our area three species of geckos are found, Garnot’s Gecko(Hemidactylus garnoti), Northern House gecko (Hemidactylus fluviviridis) and Brook’s Gecko(Hemidactylus brookii). The northern house gecko is most numerous. I have seen northern house gecko to roam side by side with Brook’s gecko. But I have never seen anyone with Garnot’s gecko. Locally where these two are found, the Garnot’s gecko stays missing.

Another interesting fact is about their breeding habit. There have never been any record of the male of this gecko. That means the whole population consists of only female geckos. Parthenogenesis is not very rare in reptile world. It is the process of producing offspring with out the need of mating or male sperm. These geckos produces two oval shaped eggs per clutch without mating with males.

Some people consider geckos to be harmful. But this is only a misconception. Actually geckos do a great amount of good by eating insects. Also geckos are not poisonous. Only three lizards are poisonous , 2 lives in north America and 1 in Comodo Island. So, that means my article name is also a misnomer. It is actually paying me by providing pest control services..