# Suspect a BYNOE'S GECKO ?



## nuttylizardguy (Jun 11, 2019)

Wife discovered this little gecko on stone benchtops chasing down a little roach , and it took refuse INSIDE the round roach bait that is on the back corner of the kitchen benches.






It's about 1.5" long (total length and has little pads on the toes and fingers).

I didn't believe her until I saw it's tail dangling from the roach bait's entry and a little shake got it out into the sink (plug in).

Hungry little gecko , polished off a few small woodies (about 3mm) and a (1" long) small mealworm in the little round tub in no time.
No suitable sized BSFL or silkworms to give to it.

Will be letting it go tomorrow night before I go to bed , once I'm sure it's not suffering any ill effects from contact with the roach bait, …. I think it's been living inside it and knocking off little roaches as they go into it to feed. So he's been doing me a favour by living in my house and helping control the ants , roaches and spiders , and he can continue with that job.

Just seeking a comfirmation of it's species.

I suspect either a BOYNES GECKO or a native RING TAILED GECKO or maybe a VELVET GECKO ??.
NSW , mid north coast location.


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## Ryan-James (Jun 11, 2019)

I can't see its feet properly in the picture.
I say your on the money with bynoes gecko if it has claws, if it has pads it would be a dtella (outside it's home range).
Definitely not a velvet or Southern velvet or Asian or ring-tailed.
It's nice to see a native though, apart from captives the only geckoes I see are Asian house.
Nice find!


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## nuttylizardguy (Jun 11, 2019)

Ryan-James said:


> I can't see its feet properly in the picture.
> I say your on the money with bynoes gecko if it has claws, if it has pads it would be a dtella (outside it's home range).
> Definitely not a velvet or Southern velvet or Asian or ring-tailed.
> It's nice to see a native though, apart from captives the only geckoes I see are Asian house.
> Nice find!



I took a look under a magnifying glass , toes have pads and terminated with little nails
Best photos I've got so far are here :
highlighting the feet, hands, toes and fingers, and I can see little ridges on the tail too.

==> little dtella based on it's toes and fingers ?









the tail kink disappears when it's curled up or moving about.

Still alive and active. (No ill effects from contact with the roach bait so far.)
[doublepost=1560240975,1560236508][/doublepost]It likes tiny woodies - I used my little bug sucker-uper (entomologist's aspirator) to suck up about 10 tiny woodies about 3mm long and the little gecko ate 6 of them , so nothing wrong with it's appetite.
This is my kit for tiny insects :






I'm using a spare cap off an old Artline 70 permanent marker as it's hide, and it fits comfortably inside and has no trouble curling up at the back .

Talk about micro beasts !!!

I'm used to dealing with water skinks, bluetongues and bearded dragons , this is an entirely new scale of doing things for me.


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## GBWhite (Jun 11, 2019)

Mate it looks to me to be a Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) which are an invasive species. They look like Dtellas but the main difference is that Dtellas don't have spines on their tails and the inner toes are clawless.


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## nuttylizardguy (Jun 11, 2019)

GBWhite said:


> Mate it looks to me to be a Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) which are an invasive species. They look like Dtellas but the main difference is that Dtellas don't have spines on their tails and the inner toes are clawless.



I wasn't aware of the clawless inner digit trait in Dtellas.
Taking a very close look the "thumbs" and "big toes" these appear clawless on this specimen. This can be seen in the closeups of the feet and hands.
There are ridges on the tail , under the magnifying glass these don't appear to be "spikes" or "spines" , just ridges of scales.

I've taken another look now that I have some clues / traits to look for and believe it's likely a Gehyra dubia or Gehyra variegata ( little line shaped spots are a strong indicator) , being a juvenile or even a hatchling (?) it's hard for certain.

Adult G.dubia





adult G.variegata




[doublepost=1560259150,1560255597][/doublepost]Either way , I'll be keeping it for a few months to see how it develops and get a better idea of it's species. Then it'll be released pretty much where we found it (in September).
And I might just decide to get into geckos and buy a few captive bred hatchlings to rear and breed (maybe some nobtails ? or velvets ?)


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## Ryan-James (Jun 12, 2019)

Yep you are both right, Asian house geckoes have a claw on each toe.
With Gehyra species the innermost toe on each foot is clawless, those new pics looks like the innermost toe is clawless, not to mention that short face but Im still not 100%
Yeah mate, those are the two gehyra species closest to you, your on a winner I reckon but then the ridges on the tail throw me off. Looks like it may moult soon too.
Dtellas were the species on everyone's walls when I was a kid, long before the Asian house gecko invasion. Good luck and keep pumping those woodies into him.


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## nuttylizardguy (Jun 30, 2019)

Ryan-James said:


> Yep you are both right, Asian house geckoes have a claw on each toe.
> With Gehyra species the innermost toe on each foot is clawless, those new pics looks like the innermost toe is clawless, not to mention that short face.
> Yeah mate, those are the two gehyra species closest to you, your on a winner I reckon.
> Dtellas were the species on everyone's walls when I was a kid, long before the Asian house gecko invasion.



When I was working as a engineering contractor at Port Hedland back in 1999 - 2001 , and then in Newman in 2002-2004 , little native nocturnal geckos (and tree frogs) were very commonly seen on walls and walking across ceilings (even 5 floors from the ground level).

I'm very pleased it's a native , and expect there are a few more hanging about inside my house and about it , where there's one juvenile / hatchling, there's got to be at least 2 adults and some juveniles and other hatchlings. I am sure I've caught a glimpse of one dash across the bathroom floor and disappear under the bath a few times - at the time I thought it was maybe a little baby water skink , I've had them come inside too.

Definitely going to hang onto it for a few months as I'm curious to see how it develops and maybe I can make a more definitive ID of it's species when it's bigger , I think from my reading they take 12 months to mature , but 3 months from now it should be starting to look more like it's adult body shape and patterning .

It's polished off all the little woodies but 2 overnight and seems to be doing OK.
Time to get another batch of silkworm eggs out of the fridge and hatch some baby silkworms to feed to it maybe as I'll soon run out of tiny woodies the way it's going through them and I really don't want to order in thousands of them (or pinhead crickets , or housefly gents) to feed just this little gecko.

Do they need water (in a little dish) ? checked my Brown's Geckos in Captivity. Water needed, so I've got a little plastic sample bottle lid from my stash with a little water in -only a few mm deep) , and the Gecko went straight to it within a few minutes and had a drink.
[doublepost=1560671229,1560325561][/doublepost]I think it likes the mini tank (tub) I've set up for it.

I often see it roaming about late at night and bashing up teenyweeny mealworms and teenyweeny woodies (dusted and gutloaded to improve their VitD3 and Ca/P) , not seen it drink from the teenyweeny water dish (small sample bottle lid) but likes to lick the sticks and itself when I give it a quick mist.
I think I may remove the water dish (roaches and worms are drowning in it) and just give the gecko a mist each night.

Polishing off 8 teenyweenie woodies (about 3mm) per night.

I've ordered some teenyweenie BSFL to give it, and have some silkworm eggs out (incubating) and hope to offer the little hatchling silkworms to the gecko when they about 2 weeks old .

My only interactions with it are when I take the lid off the 600 cc tub to replace the water. The tiny worms and woodies go in via the little airholes in the lid (very few find their way out as the gecko makes fast work of the little woodies) - is a voracious hunter.

My wife has named it Godzilla. LOL , I think the name will stick.
[doublepost=1561823439][/doublepost]Released , actually escaped when I was misting him with the lid off , dashed across the coffee table and leapt onto the carpet were he was nearly impossble to see (same colour as the matt) and when I glanced away to get my headtorch he disappeared .

Since he's been living in my house , he's now back where he was found more or less and will likely end up back in the kitchen I expect .

So he's released himself a bit sooner than I was planning (was hoping to watch him grow) and learn something about him in the process. Too bad but probably for the best.

I keep hearing little rusting sounds …. wishful thinking maybe , if he shows up on back where he was found, we'll be happy enough and might just put his little jar lid hide in the corner of the benchtop for him to go to (he liked it and it's got his scent now).


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